


Social Society at the Three Houses Club

by Signel_chan



Category: Fire Emblem: Fuukasetsugetsu | Fire Emblem: Three Houses
Genre: Additional Warnings In Author's Note, Alcohol, Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Awkward Conversations, Backstory, Domestic Fluff, F/M, Family Feels, First Meetings, Fishing, Party, School Dance (or something like it), Sharing a Bed, Slow Burn, Socially Awkward Characters, Time Skips, Vacation, Warnings May Change, bring floss to clean out that fluff, did i mention fishing? because there's fishing, last-minute dates, rhea is a no-good woman
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-21
Updated: 2021-02-28
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:07:20
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 10
Words: 112,497
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25425118
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Signel_chan/pseuds/Signel_chan
Summary: Byleth is not a socially-inclined person, but when Jeralt gets a new job working at a stuffy academy, he has no choice but to force her into attending a social club for the students there. That sends her headfirst into a completely different world, where every face she gets to know may have lasting effects on her everyday life, for better or for worse.
Relationships: My Unit | Byleth/Claude von Riegan
Comments: 6
Kudos: 43





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [GreenMudkip](https://archiveofourown.org/users/GreenMudkip/gifts).



Ever since she had finished her in-person schooling several years prior, Byleth hadn’t done much beyond hang around home and occasionally log into her college classes, which she was only doing wholly online at her father’s insistence. In fact, most things she did were because Jeralt told her it was either do them or find her own way of living, and even though she doubted he was serious with the threat she wasn’t interested in finding out if he was. He made enough money as a freelance security guard to afford their small apartment and all of their basic needs, and he didn’t seem bothered that his daughter didn’t leave home too often, especially when she was willing to do all of the housework and split cooking duties with him. She was also a good companion to have around when the nights would get lonely and he’d miss her mother, but he rarely mentioned that to her (even though she knew it to be true, she could see it in his eyes whenever they’d sit in the living room in silence and he’d stare at her for what felt like hours).

If anything was going to change what had become their normal, it was going to be something big and unavoidable, and that happened to come just as a semester of classes was wrapping up, Byleth having gotten stellar grades without really trying much beyond logging in every day and completing every assignment within hours of it being posted. She was sitting on her computer in her usual spot under the window when Jeralt came home one day, grumbling about something that had happened to him that day, and she closed the computer to give him her undivided attention. “Have to break up another fight?” she asked, nothing prompting the question other than recognizing her father’s body language. “Aren’t you getting too old to do that?”

“No, no, nothing like that, and I’ve easily got another twenty, hell, maybe even thirty years before I’d be ‘too old’ to jump into a scrap around here.” Jeralt chuckled at his statement but Byleth stared at him blankly, not finding anything he’d said even remotely funny, so he cleared his throat and moved along. “It’s about the next job I’ll be working. My days as a freelance guy, for the moment, are as good as over.”

“Does that mean we’re losing our home?” She was getting to her feet, not out of concern but out of habit; Byleth knew that after Jeralt got home, it was time to start making dinner, and she needed to be ready to help. “I suppose if that is the case, I can get a job to help pay the bills until your work is back to normal.”

“Eh, don’t jump to conclusions like that, kid.” Watching as Byleth walked in his direction, Jeralt gave her a look from head to toe, before shaking his head. “Guess I really shouldn’t keep calling you that, you’re a grown woman now, but the point still stands. The new job’s going to pay more, but it’s got a different sort of cost to it that I don’t think you’ll like.”

She stopped moving forward, feeling the tone of his voice shift from frustrated to something she couldn’t quite place. “I’m afraid I don’t understand. If we’re not going to have to move, and I’m not going to have to get a job, what is there I won’t like?”

“I’ll be working at a local academy for, to put it bluntly, rich or entitled kids. Sometimes some middle-class students sneak their way in, but it’s almost exclusively the rich snots we make fun of on the magazines at the store.” That description made Byleth think about her shopping trips with her father, a bi-weekly activity they’d done together for as long as she could remember, if not longer, and how they’d pick out the entitled headlines and make jokes about them. “It’s not a job I wanted, but some old connections dragged me in and I don’t really have a choice when the pay’s that good.”

“So I won’t like that you’re working with rich kids?”

“Oh, goddess no, that’s one part I’m not looking forward to. You won’t like it because in order for me to have this job, you have to attend the students’, as they put it, social club. It’s open to the public but no one attends it outside of kids at the academy, and the headmaster wants you to become a regular. Some sort of snooty place, from the sound of it.” Jeralt took a deep breath and exhaled it in a staggered way, waiting for Byleth to give some sort of reaction; as was her standard, she remained blank-faced and unsure of how to react. “Your first day with them will be my first day on the job, which is next week. At least you get that much time to mentally prepare for whatever nonsense they’ll put you through.”

“A snooty rich kid social club, hm? I suppose I should brush up on how rich kids act, and things they like.” The last time Byleth recalled interacting with someone her own age in a social setting had been when she was still in high school, so the prospect of attending such an event was daunting, but she felt no real fear in the matter. It took something incredibly strong to get her to feel anything, though, so despite her father’s worries she didn’t seem to think there wasn’t too big of a deal in her being forced to attend some club.

Over the course of the next week, between working on her schedule for the upcoming semester of school and doing her housework, Byleth found herself looking up different articles about what the higher-class students in Fódlan found interesting. High society wasn’t anything she’d had to deal with before, and the expectation that she was going to fit in with a group of them seemed wrongly placed, but if anyone was going to adapt to the situation, it was going to be her. Jeralt would come home almost every day to the sight of her still in her seat at the window, intently reading something on her laptop, and it would take him calling for her to get her attention, getting her to move on to other things for the night.

The day of joining the club arrived and that was the first day that Byleth found herself on the campus of the Garreg Mach Monastery School, an elite academy she’d seen brought up in a couple of the articles she’d had to read. Named for the town nestled in the center of the country of Fódlan, it was not somewhere that many people were permitted to enter, and as Jeralt drove them in through the gates she could feel her eyes widening at seeing the campus buildings they were passing. “This place is really a school?” she asked, despite knowing the answer.

“Sure is. Used to just be a village and a church, but then someone got it in their mind that it should be less village-like and more school-like. The church’s the only place on campus you’re allowed to enter if you’re not a student.” Jeralt paused in time with slowing their car down, to take a sharp turn between two buildings. “We get a pass at the headmaster’s insistence, of course.”

Byleth was transfixed at the classic architecture of the buildings she could see, but she did not let it distract herself from the conversation. “Why does the headmaster insist on this? Did you do something notable to them?”

“You could word it that way.” Taking another turn, Jeralt brought the car to a stop outside of one of the newest-looking buildings around, a smaller stone structure with its front doors wide open. “We can discuss that more later. Be good, kid, and don’t get into any fights with the younger folk you’ll be rubbin’ elbows with around here. Last thing we want is for you to put a stain on either of our names.”

She looked at the building, then to her father, who was motioning to her with his head, small gestures that she knew to mean she needed to take him seriously. There were many questions she wanted to ask in that moment, but voicing any of them would be answered with a reminder that she needed to go, so she undid her seatbelt, opened the door, and got out into the sunshine, closing the door behind her just as her father started driving away. It hit her at once that she was somewhere unfamiliar without him there to rely on, a feeling that she hadn’t felt in a very long time, but the final words he’d said to her ran through her head: be good, don’t get into any fights, no stain on their names. “I can try my best,” she mumbled, tugging down the hem of her skirt so that it sat flat just above her kneecaps, her floral tights underneath it riddled with holes but she hadn’t realized that until too late. “There are only so many things I can do on my own, though.”

The time it took her to walk from the curb to the open doors felt like minutes, but based on how many steps she took it had to have only been a few seconds, and she was inside the building before she knew it. There was no taking back going inside, whether she would have wanted it or not, and any conversations that had been taking place before her arrival had fallen to a hushed silence at her appearance in the doorway. Right away the accusations started flying, that she was a stranger and unwanted in the place, that she didn’t belong there, that someone was going to call campus security to get her to leave—and at that one she found her voice and replied, to the open air, “My father’s campus security, I’d be okay with him coming back to take me home.”

“Silence, everyone!” The response was not one that Byleth was expecting, and she found it to be delivered by a tiny girl with white hair hanging half-loose, half-tied up, who’d stood up from a table across the room and held her arms out to help deliver her command. “This must be the woman that we were told about this morning at breakfast. Stop accusing her of being an intruder in our club when she was invited here!”

“Invited here by someone you despise,” someone next to her replied, which Byleth assumed was the dark-haired fellow she smacked immediately after the line was said. He wasn’t the only one who had something snarky to say on the white-haired girl’s statement, as the voices began picking back up with new accusations and speculations.

This time, when they were stopped, it was because someone had taken the initiative and approached Byleth for themselves, a kind-looking woman with long blonde hair pinned to the side, who instantly made Byleth feel at ease. “Oh, don’t be too worried about all of this,” she said in a sweet voice. “They’re always like this with newcomers, it’s why we don’t get many around here. Come, you can sit with us so we can get to know each other.”

“I don’t know who ‘us’ is,” Byleth told her, fairly certain that was an observation that didn’t need stating but stated it anyway. “I just know that my father said this is a snooty rich kid club and that I have to be here, so I’m here.”

The woman grabbed one of Byleth’s hands and took it into her own, giving the top of it a couple firm pats before directing her towards a table covered in a blue tablecloth, where several others were sitting among empty chairs. She gave Byleth one that was already pulled out, before drawing her own with a dainty foot and sitting down in it, watching as Byleth did the same with her own. “My name is Mercedes, and I can tell that you aren’t used to being in a place like this. Don’t worry too much about the others, they’ll all come around to you after a while. What’s your name?”

“Byleth. Why do you already like me?” Although she knew that there were others at the table, and she could see at least one of them out of the corner of her eye, Byleth was trying her best to focus on Mercedes. “I never had anyone treat me like this in school.”

“I just want to make sure everyone here feels welcomed, especially when the others try their best to make them think they don’t belong!” Mercedes’ voice picked up several pitches in that moment, making Byleth understand that this wasn’t the first time she’d tried to swoop in and protect someone, but perhaps it was the first time it had worked. “I would also recommend that you not refer to everyone here as ‘snooty’ or ‘rich’, because that isn’t true. If you want everyone to be friendly to you, Byleth, you have to be friendly to everyone back.”

“Ooh, ooh, can I talk to her now?” The sound of a chair scooting across the floor echoed through the room for a moment, and soon there was an arm wrapped its way around Byleth’s other side, causing her to turn to see an orange-haired girl who looked incredibly excited to have been able to get so close to the newcomer. “I’m Annette, and I just know we’re going to get along super well! What kinds of things do you like? I like singing, is that something you’re into?”

Blinking a few times as she thought about if she’d ever sang in her life (the answer was yes, she had, there had been several occasions where she and her father had belted out classic music together in the car), Byleth chose to shake her head and not get into that. “I like doing my school work, and sitting at home doing things there. I’m not really a people kind of person, if that makes sense.”

“I totally get it,” Annette replied, her voice turning more solemn as she scooted back away from where Byleth’s chair was, “and I totally get that you probably don’t want a stranger like me hanging all over you! You’re so lucky that Mercie is going to be your buddy, she’s super great at getting people to break out of their shells!”

“That’s good, I think,” Byleth said, turning her attention back to Mercedes, who had been sweetly smiling the whole time Annette had been doing her interruption. “You’re my buddy now, I guess?”

“That certainly was the plan, until you’re comfortable enough with mingling with everyone else.” Mercedes looked at the others who were at the table, a silver-haired boy who was reading a book and a boy with dark hair that was pulled back behind him, who was scowling off in another direction. “I think we can stick with you being with just me and Annie for the moment, though.”

Byleth again looked to Annette, who was humming something to herself as she swung her feet from her chair, before her eyes settled on Mercedes’s face once more. “That sounds like a good idea, you both seem nice,” she decided, mostly for her own sake but also knowing that people liked hearing positive things about themselves. “Is everyone else here as nice as you?”

“If they were, we would have many more people than we do! Some people here are very standoffish, you can’t get to know them unless you force them to talk to you, and even then it doesn’t always feel worth it.” Mercedes motioned towards the table where the girl with the white hair from before was sitting, their table covered in a red cloth. “The Black Eagles, as their group is known, can be very difficult to get to know.”

“You said black but their table is red.” Looking at the table (and seeing Mercedes turn with her, so that they were both focused on the other group), Byleth had intended on getting a better grasp about who all was sitting there, but she couldn’t process anything aside from the table itself.

“Yes, I’m quite aware, but that’s just how it works. Besides, red is much more fitting with the other colors compared to what it would look like with black. But I digress, there are a couple people there that I’m sure would take to you like we have, but overall…the group is not worth your time.” Turning their attention back to the table they were sitting at, Mercedes continued, “Our group is known as the Blue Lions, and yes, our tablecloth matches our name, before you point it out.”

Having already seen the people who were sitting there before, Byleth instead focused on the surplus of empty chairs at the table, rather than anyone else who was present. “You have a much smaller group than they do,” she said, looking back at the Black Eagle table to make sure she hadn’t counted wrong. “They only have two empty chairs.”

“One empty chair, the person sitting in it happens to be under the table,” Mercedes corrected without missing a beat. “And I understand that we have quite a few empty spots but they would usually be filled. The fact that there were four of us here before you showed up was quite surprising, normally it would be only myself, Annie, and Ashe.”

Before she could ask which one that would be, Mercedes pointed at the boy reading the book and Byleth nodded, figuring that the fact that the other boy wouldn’t normally be there was why he looked so sour. “You’re not going to tell her where they’re at, are you?” Annette asked, breaking into Mercedes’ apparently well-rehearsed introduction of the social club. “I wouldn’t throw that on someone so new to all this, it could be…a lot.”

“I wasn’t planning on it, she’ll learn about that in due time. For now, let’s teach you about the Golden Deer, the third and final group that gathers here.” This time, rather than having them both turn in their seats, Mercedes had Byleth stand up so they could fully turn around, the populated table with a yellow tablecloth nestled into the corner. “I’m aware they say they’re golden but it’s yellow, as I said before it matches better that way.”

“They’re staring at me,” Byleth remarked, feeling just about every pair of eyes at that table digging holes into her skin. They all looked friendly enough, but she couldn’t help but feel that they were judging her to some extent. “I don’t want them to think I’m not a good person, what do I do?”

Mercedes laughed, a sound like gentle chimes blowing in the wind. “Give them a smile, it’ll put them at ease and make them like you right away.”

“I…don’t smile.”

“Everyone smiles, Byleth. Even if it’s a small one, it will do wonders in making them like you without a word.” Thankfully Mercedes wasn’t looking when Byleth finally followed her advice and forced a smile onto her lips, the expression coming off more grimace-like than anything else. She did see the reactions, which were all confused or laughing, but she didn’t seem to equate it to Byleth’s inability to emote properly, simply because she didn’t see that as an actual option. “Come on, let’s go back to our seats, now that you’re more familiar with the layout here perhaps you’ll open up to me and Annie a bit better.”

Not sure if she wanted to give a rebuttal or not, Byleth merely went along with Mercedes’ direction and found herself back in the seat at the blue table, the dark-haired boy having left in the time they were gone. “Oh, don’t worry about Felix, he’s probably seeing what the hold up is with everyone else,” Annette explained when she saw Byleth’s eyes examining the spot that had been emptied. “That’s…pretty typical of him, actually!”

“You’re all friends here?” Byleth asked, referring to not just the people who should have been at the table but everyone else in the room as well, but whether or not that was clear to Annette she wasn’t sure. “I’ve never really had friends. Just my father.”

“Some of us are friends, yeah! Not everyone, but we don’t expect everyone to get along, even if that would be neat!” Clasping her hands together, Annette seemed so happy for a moment, until a dark shadow seemed to fall over her face and she froze. The energy she’d been giving off disappeared, and right as Byleth felt it necessary to ask why that was, she felt a hand touch her shoulder and she turned to see who was there.

Standing behind her was a rather tall, thick boy with an enthused grin on his face. “Hey, come with me for a moment, my friends wanna talk to you,” he said, waving his large hand as a greeting to Byleth, and she knew that he’d been sitting at the yellow table, and those friends he was referring to were the people who’d been laughing at her. “It’s not a big deal if I borrow her, is it, Mercedes?”

“Of course not, Raphael!” she replied without sounding even slightly upset about it. “I’d love to see you properly introduce our new participant in this club with everyone in the Golden Deer. A gentle giant such as yourself will make for a perfect guide.”

“Thanks for the confidence boost!” His booming laugh reminded Byleth somewhat of when her father would laugh at something he’d read in the news or heard on the radio, and she found herself becoming at ease knowing she’d be following this Raphael fellow around for a while. “Now come on, they’re gonna think I scared you if we don’t hurry.”

Giving both Mercedes and Annette looks to let them know she intended to come back, Byleth stood up and Raphael immediately tried grabbing her arm to drag her over to the other table, but as she knew where it was she made sure to stay out of his grasp and walked herself in that direction. He kept up well behind her, holding his arms out to keep her from bobbing to the side and running away, which she thought was silly but she reminded herself that most new people left immediately so it might have been an act out of trying to keep her present. “Oh geez, he actually went and got her,” the girl with two long, pink pigtails remarked right as Byleth got to be within earshot. “This is going to be interesting, don’t you all think?”

“I’m not really interesting.” Now, Byleth knew that the question hadn’t been asked to her, but instead about her, but she couldn’t resist stepping into a conversation she wasn’t expected to be inside when she was the topic. “Why did you send Raphael to get me?”

The boy sitting next to the girl who’d spoken raised his hand, only to run it over his slicked-back hair instead of holding it up. “That’d be my fault, sorry about that. Couldn’t help but want to get to meet you for ourselves, before the Blue Lions decide to keep you as their own. Needed to know if I wanted to fight them for you.” His voice was playful, supplemented with a wink that stunned Byleth to see, never having considered herself any sort of person worth fighting over. “The name’s Claude, but no need to introduce yourself, I already know who you are.”

“How do you know me already, Claude?” she asked, while the pink-haired girl looked incredulously towards her friend at his brazen statement. “I’m curious.”

“Snuck into the headmaster’s office after hours the other day, saw the forms she filled out for you joining us, nothing too big.” Claude laughed, before dropping his elbows onto the table and resting his head on his fists, tilting it side to side as Byleth watched him, still stunned at what he was saying. “You’re the new security guard’s daughter. Byleth, was it?”

“That’s right, my name is Byleth.” She didn’t know what else there was to tell him, given that she didn’t know what all the headmaster knew about her and had documented. Instead of trying to talk more about herself, she chose to go in a different direction: bringing up the fact that he’d been one of the ones laughing when she’d been looking at them before. “Did you think my smile looked funny?”

“Oh, that was supposed to be a smile?” the boy on Claude’s other side spat out, his eyes going wide as he turned his head right towards the pink-haired girl and continued speaking, this time directly to her instead of the general group. “I suppose you win that bet, Hilda, but I never would have guessed something so pained would be a _smile_.”

Claude looked at the people surrounding him before sighing, shaking his head as he did. “You’ll have to excuse these two, Hilda and Lorenz are like gossipy hens here in this crowded henhouse, and they’re enjoying picking on the new chicken among us. But don’t you worry, not everyone else—“

“I can’t hold it in anymore!” another person at the table yelled out, catching everyone’s attention as all eyes fell on her and short orange hair, her face red from presumably having been keeping herself quiet. “You’re Jeralt Eisner’s _daughter_ , how in the world did you end up coming to a place like this?”

“—I stand corrected, Leonie’s got something to pick at as well.” Claude, leaning back in his chair far enough to be able to forego his casual lean and replace it with kicking his feet up onto the table’s edge, looked at the girl who’d interrupted him and offered her the floor. “Byleth’s all yours, go for it.”

“Go for it? I don’t even know where to start! I’ve worked with your father on a few jobs and when I heard he got offered the open position here I had no idea that he’d have his daughter showing up to meet everyone!” It was undeniable that Leonie was a big fan of Jeralt, for one reason or another, but she never seemed to get to anything specific that made her feel that way, and by the time she’d rambled for five minutes about how awe-struck she was to be in Byleth’s presence given who her father was, everyone was ready to move on.

Having taken back his seat after doing the retrieval job, Raphael looked across the table at Leonie somewhere around that five-minute mark and told her, “Uh, maybe you shouldn’t make our new friend feel like a celebrity, I don’t think she’s enjoying it much.”

“I’m not,” Byleth agreed, not sure how she was supposed to be taking Leonie’s behavior towards her. “I don’t really know what to do knowing that you know my dad and think you’ll like me because you like him. I’m not even great at security stuff like he is.”

That didn’t seem to faze Leonie, but she did promise that she’d keep things down as much as she could for the moment, not to overwhelm her. “Look at that, everything’s just fine between us all,” Claude said with a chuckle, wiggling his feet as they were still on the table, until Hilda got annoyed with them and tried pushing them back onto the ground. The ensuing argument wasn’t anything Byleth was interested in being present for, so without announcing anything or even checking to see if she could go, she went back over to where Mercedes and Annette were waiting for her return.

“How did things go for you?” Mercedes questioned almost immediately, before Byleth had fully gotten back into her seat. “It seemed like Leonie had quite the story to tell you, and of course, Claude was talking to you as well. Everything go okay?”

Byleth considered relaying exactly what had happened word-for-word, but decided that she would just sum things up the best way possible, to put an end to the questioning. “As okay as it can on the first day,” she decided to say, “and I’m ready for today to be over.”

“So much social interaction and it hasn’t even been an hour, you’re going to be exhausted by the time you get to leave this afternoon.” Even though Mercedes was most likely trying to sound friendly, she came off as a bit cryptic to Byleth, and for the remaining several hours she had to spend there at the club, she was fully expecting things to get ugly like they did on the TV shows she sometimes watched when she had nothing else to do. She’d already seen the start of one fight there at the yellow table, how many more would break out during her time there?

The answer was none, and the one she’d seen hadn’t even really been a fight to begin with so it never should have counted; that didn’t stop Byleth’s apprehension about meeting everyone else by name and talking to them from growing with every person she met. She made sure not to stray from Mercedes and Annette for the whole day, having had enough excitement with that one breakaway that she didn’t want to experience anything like that again, and with the two of them at her side she was able to meet just about everyone else there in their social club. The exceptions to that rule were three people at the red table: the white-haired girl and her dark-haired companion, and whoever it was that was camped out under the table for the entire day.

* * *

To celebrate the first completed shift on the new job, as well as his daughter’s first day in an unfamiliar social setting, Jeralt decided to take them out to dinner for a change, finding a quaint restaurant near the school for them to try. “It’s not going to be a home-cooked meal, but it’ll be a good way to let today feel as important as it is for both of us,” he explained as they blew past the turn that would have sent them heading home, Byleth fidgeting in her seat rather than replying to her father. He understood that she’d been through a lot that day and didn’t pester her to get her input, although he did reach over and gently rest his hand on her arm, giving it a gentle squeeze to remind her he was there for her.

By the time they’d gotten inside the restaurant, Byleth had decided that she wasn’t going to let her experience with all of those kids ruin her night with her father, not when he clearly wanted them to savor the day. “Do you want me to tell you everything that happened?” she asked him as they were heading to their table, the hostess jabbering about specials and deals and neither of them listening to the speech. “I can do that if you want.”

“Only tell me the important parts, kid, I can’t have you reciting a whole day’s worth of activity when I’ve got things to tell you too.” Based on how he didn’t sound upset or even angry about anything, Byleth assumed that he’d had an overall good day, which she could say the same about her own even if it had been very much outside her comfort zone.

They were seated at a corner table, far away from everyone else who was dining there, and after taking their seats the conversation got into full swing. Byleth went first, picking out the important details of what she’d been through that day: meeting almost everyone who was a member of the club, making two friends without trying (that part impressed Jeralt, who admitted he hadn’t expected to hear that on the first day), and finding that someone there was familiar with him. “Her name was Leonie, she did nothing but talk to me about you and how I should be like you.”

“Sounds just like the Leonie I know, she gets better over time. You’ve just got to let her work through her admiration, it’ll get better eventually.” Jeralt smiled across the table at his daughter, who was looking down at her menu as straight-faced as ever, but she gave off an air of happiness, something he wasn’t familiar with feeling with her. “But I’m glad it all went well. When Lady Rhea told me she wanted you there, I have to admit, I thought you’d be a fish out of water.”

“Who’s Lady Rhea? Never heard of her before.” Byleth’s eyes came off of the menu to meet her father’s, seeing his grimace as he realized he’d said something he hadn’t meant to. “Father, there’s no reason to keep secrets from me, just tell me who she is.”

“No point in hiding it from you, she’s the headmaster there at the school. Not only that, but she’s some high official at Garreg Mach Monastery itself, making her the kind of person you do not want to cross.” Simply based on that introduction of the woman, Byleth found herself very surprised that she’d heard someone talk about breaking into her office to read her personal papers just earlier that day—a fact that she was going to keep to herself, especially after her father added, “I’ve been hired at the academy for security reasons, specifically for the administrative offices. Someone keeps sneaking in and they want an end to it, but they’ve only had enough manpower for a weak patrol. Hiring me gives ‘em the ability to have the offices guarded as well as the rest of the campus, without sacrificing anything.”

“Just guarding offices sounds like an easy job,” Byleth remarked, thinking about some of her father’s previous assignments where he’d been tasked with protecting entire neighborhoods or highly controversial figures on his own. “So why didn’t you want this job before?”

“Ah, right, I did mention that when I got it offered to me.” Heaving a sigh, Jeralt leaned his head back and looked at the ceiling for a moment, his eyes flickering all around as he thought about how to explain what had prompted him to make that original statement. “I know a guy, his name’s Alois, he and I go way back but I was fine not going anywhere else with him as long as I lived. Turns out, he overhears your new friend Leonie talking about me, chats with her about how she knows who I am, goes and tells Lady Rhea that he’s got a friend who could help the school out, and then…job offer I can’t turn down.

Byleth raised her eyebrows, following along with the entire story minus one part. “I’ve never heard you talk about this Alois person before. Must not be a very friend of yours.”

“Our relationship’s complicated, and it’s not something we’re getting into over dinner. You asked about why I didn’t want the job and _that’s_ the story I’m telling you tonight, we can get into him some other time.” Jeralt sat up straight, trying to meet his daughter’s eyes once again but she was only half-paying attention anymore, her focus instead on figuring out what she was going to order. “Eh, we can get into the details later, I suppose,” he said, seeing where she was looking and how it still wasn’t at him. “Not much of a story anyway.”

“I’m still listening to you, Father.”

“Right, right, and you’re probably beyond curious, knowing you.” He tried to laugh but felt it to be too forced of an action to make it count, but he still made Byleth wait a bit longer for the story to start, allowing their order to be placed and drinks to be delivered (and his first already downed) before he got into the main part of his story. “I worked with Lady Rhea for a while before you were born. Nothing exciting there, it was a strictly professional deal, but I couldn’t stand her then, especially not after what happened between her and your mother.”

At the mention of her mother Byleth nearly knocked her glass of water over, managing to push it to teetering on the edge of the table without spilling a drop. “What happened between them?” she asked, as she fixed the drink so that the same thing couldn’t occur a second time. “You never really talk about her.”

“That’s also not the story we’re telling right now. Point is, after your mother died, I couldn’t keep working for that woman and so I struck it out in the world on my own, doing whatever I could to keep you happy and safe.” Jeralt gave a motion with his hands to signal that he was at the end of his story, but just seeing the intense stare his daughter was giving him he knew that the end wasn’t good enough for her. “What else do you want from me here, kid? I’ve only got so much I feel comfortable talking about in a place like this.”

That statement struck Byleth as strange. “Why does the location matter?”

“You’re still not familiar with the world of Garreg Mach, so you don’t get it, but anywhere around here is crawling with people loyal to one person: Lady Rhea. She hears I’m saying anything negative about her from a secondhand source and there could be hell to pay.” Crossing his arms over his muscular chest, Jeralt gave Byleth a look that told her, without outright saying it, that he wasn’t going to tell her anything more about it, and she had to concede because she didn’t want to cause trouble for her father.

At about the same time their food was delivered, the silence that had fallen over them was broken by someone else coming up to the table, a man who looked to be closer in age to Jeralt, asking if he could borrow Byleth for a moment. She seemed to distrust the request immediately, but after her father gave the man a knowing look and nodded, telling her that she should follow him, she stood up and, much like she had been at the club, was led to another table. Sitting there was one of the girls who’d been at (what Byleth remembered as) the yellow table, her blue hair tied back in braids and knots and her face a bright red at seeing the person who’d been brought to her. “You’re part of the social club at the school,” Byleth stated, looking at the girl who meekly nodded. “I didn’t expect to see you here. It was Marianne, wasn’t it?”

“Yes, um, that would be me. I-I didn’t expect to see you here either,” she replied, her voice barely above a whisper. “But I saw you and…” Her voice trailed off as she looked at the man who’d brought Byleth to her, who was sitting back down with a smile on his face. “Thank you for being so kind.”

“You’re welcome.” Byleth’s response was short, but she knew that she had a meal waiting for her back at the table and she couldn’t spend all night socializing with someone she’d just met earlier that day. However, she looked at the man, whose eyes were on Marianne, and asked, “Why did you have to bring me over here? Couldn’t she have walked herself?”

“Marianne’s a bit shy, and nervous around new people. The fact that she said anything at all about you being here was astounding!” The man seemed to be embarrassing Marianne with that statement, her sinking back into her seat and burying her face with her hands, but he didn’t feel bothered by it, looking at Byleth with a smirk. “I’d be honored if you’d spend more time with her in the future, ever since her parents passed she’s had very little in the way of friends and—”

“I’ll let her decide if she wants to spend time with me.” Cutting the man off because the conversation didn’t feel right to her, Byleth gave Marianne an apologetic look before walking back to her table, Jeralt obviously having watched the entire thing from the comfort of the corner table. “I’m back, don’t make me do that again.”

“Ol’ Edmund there isn’t the sort of person I would say no to when he’s asking for something, if only because he seems to be doing it with that girl in mind. Figured it would be a safe bet to send you off with him.” Taking a bite of the already-half eaten steak in front of him, Jeralt looked on as Byleth sat down and began picking at her own meal. “I can assume that it didn’t go well, given that the girl’s hiding and he looks unimpressed.”

Byleth didn’t say a word, choosing to eat over talking. She hadn’t realized how hungry she was until she’d seen the plate of mixed greens and meat in her spot, and she wasn’t going to let it go cold on her. This was in spite of having been fed a rather delicious lunch put together by some of the members of the social club, but she never seemed to be able to eat enough to fully put her hunger to rest. Knowing that he wasn’t going to get any explanations from his daughter until she was fed, Jeralt muttered something to himself and continued eating his own meal, occasionally remarking that it was overcooked and that he could do better on his own.

They both finished at about the same time, their server coming by to offer them dessert and to clear the plates right away. The offer was turned down, Jeralt asking for the bill instead, and the server complied; in the moments between him leaving with the dishes and coming back with the check, Jeralt tried asking Byleth about what had happened at the other table again but she remained silent, her mind racing instead with all the possibilities of what could happen the next time she went to the social club. Was Marianne going to hold this against her somehow, even though she hadn’t done anything? Was word of this going to spread and cause trouble among everyone? Was she going to have made it one day before everything fell apart for her?

There was only one way to find out, and that was what prompted Byleth to make her next words one small question: “When is the next time I’m going to be at the school?”

“Every weekday from here on out,” Jeralt answered, still not getting to know what had happened at the table but knowing that he probably wasn’t going to get to know. “Why, you have a hot date or something you need to prepare for?” That was enough to get the tiniest of smiles to crack on Byleth’s lips, a victory that few could ever claim they’d achieved, but she didn’t give him any answer for why she was curious.

The truth was, Byleth just wanted to know when she’d face the fallout from that short, disastrous interaction, and how long she’d have to prepare herself for losing the friends she’d thought she’d made. She couldn’t fathom everyone there in that club still liking her if they found out that she’d fumbled an interaction like that, especially if Marianne made it out to be a big deal—but she had no idea that she was making a mountain out of a molehill that no one, not even Marianne, cared about.

* * *

Getting dropped off on the curbside took place earlier the next day, their whole trip onto the campus happening several hours earlier than it had the day before. Jeralt claimed this was because he’d gotten the wrong reporting time the day before, but based on how grumpy he looked when he was driving Byleth only assumed that it was part of that disdain for Lady Rhea coming into play. Either way, it put her at the club’s front doors before they were propped open, and she had to let herself inside rather than casually walking in. There wasn’t anyone present at two of the tables, both blue and yellow sitting completely empty and untouched, but there was someone that Byleth didn’t recall meeting the day before sitting at the red-clothed one, a pencil in one hand and a notebook on the table in front of her.

Byleth was able to make it all the way to drawing a chair at that table before she was noticed, and the _way_ that the girl she’d snuck up on screamed when she realized she wasn’t alone was almost enough to make Byleth regret not announcing her presence. “W-who are you and why are you here?” the girl asked, her whole body trembling as she frantically closed her notebook. “I don’t recognize you as being someone around here!”

“I’m Byleth. Yesterday was my first day, I’m new here.” Sitting down as far from the girl as she could while still being at the table, Byleth looked at her notebook rather than her, watching the girl try to hide it defensively. “Are you doing school work, or are you doing something for fun?”

“Why does it matter? I wasn’t doing anything! Please leave me alone!” As she was stumbling over her words, the girl had managed to bring her notebook down into her lap, and soon enough she was hiding under the table, leaving Byleth confused about what had just happened but not curious enough to pursue conversation. She could hear the girl down below once again writing something, based on the soft scratching of her pencil on the paper, but no matter how interested she was, Byleth wasn’t going to cause a second meltdown.

Instead, she sat there at the Black Eagle table and waited for others to show up, because while she knew it was early in the day she knew that people would be coming eventually. Schools, even ones that had most students living in housing on-campus like Garreg Mach did, were wrapping up for the semester and there wasn’t any way that all of the students from the day before were still doing full days’ worth of classes. She kept track of the time by looking at the clock hanging on the wall, before taking notice of some of the other decorations she’d been too overwhelmed to look at on her first day, and she decided she’d go look at those rather than just sitting around.

While she was walking towards the collection of pictures on the wall, she heard the other girl climb back out from underneath the table, sighing to herself about something, but she didn’t let that distract her. There were so many framed group photos on the wall, in columns against three distinctly colored stripes on the wall, each labeled with the name that Mercedes had used for the tables the day before. Blue was the Blue Lions, red was the Black Eagles, and yellow was the Golden Deer, and as Byleth looked at the pictures she found herself unable to find anyone she recognized in them. Sure, there were some people who _looked_ like the ones she’d met, but they didn’t have the same name and the pictures were too old for them to be the same person. “Oh, you’re already in here,” a voice said while Byleth was standing on her tiptoes, nearly knocking her over with how sudden it was. She shrank down and looked for the source, which was the white-haired girl. “I was expecting you to be much later, as you were yesterday. Have you been here long?”

“Only for a while,” Byleth replied, looking over her head to check the clock. “The other girl has been here longer, but I couldn’t talk to her.”

“Bernadetta isn’t fond of speaking to strangers, or those who have known her for years, so that comes as no surprise.” The white-haired girl puffed up her shoulders and tried to look more physically imposing than she was, a task made difficult given that she was standing there by herself. “We did not get to meet yesterday, and I intended on changing that today. My name is Edelgard von Hresvelg, and it is an honor to have you as a member of our club.”

She was offering a hand to shake, which Byleth took only because she thought it would be rude to deny it. “Byleth Eisner, but everyone just calls me Byleth. I don’t have to call you that whole name, do I?”

“Of course not, I was merely being respectful and professional, as someone of my social standing is apt to do. I’m aware that you are only here because of your father’s new position as a security guard with the Academy, but many of us who frequent this space are of much higher social standing than the average citizen.” Edelgard motioned towards the pictures that Byleth had been looking at, specifically those of the Black Eagles of old. “Our particular ‘house’ of the club has traditionally been made up of those whose families have strong political backgrounds, whereas the Blue Lions are more business-focused. The Golden Deer are everyone else who wanders in.”

“By that explanation, I’d be a Deer, wouldn’t I?” Byleth asked, thinking about the people she’d met at the yellow table the day before. She hadn’t found herself having many problems with them, even though she’d preferred being with Mercedes and Annette over being with their entire group. “Or can I pick whichever one I want?”

“It depends on whether or not people want you in their group, I suppose.” Tapping a finger to her chin, Edelgard was looking Byleth over from head to toe, clicking her tongue and thinking where she would personally put her. “If it was my decision, I would say you are welcome to rebuke tradition and join me and my friends, but that is not a decision for me to make on my own, unfortunately, and I know how difficult it can be for some of the others to accept that tradition is not the only way to proceed.”

“Aw, El, are you cornering our newcomer into becoming one of you?” someone else asked, and both of them looked to see a small group coming into the building, led by a man with stringy blond hair that Byleth had met the day before. If she remembered correctly, his name was Dimitri, and he was the so-called leader of the Blue Lions, and everyone around him were his friends that had been spending their time the day before with him rather than at the table. “I thought we’d agreed to give anyone new a week before we broke out the recruitment speeches.”

“Very funny, Dimitri, but I’m telling her that she gets to make the decision herself. Besides, you know as well as I do that certain others will not take too kindly to the daughter of a security guard becoming the newest member of the Black Eagles.” Edelgard turned completely to face Dimitri, who was looking past her to see Byleth’s attention waning from the conversation and focusing on the pictures once again instead. There was more said between the two but Byleth didn’t hear a word of it, her thoughts focused entirely on which of the supposedly arbitrary groups she wanted to associate herself with.

She was off in her own world until she felt someone grab her arm, and upon looking she saw that Edelgard had placed both hands on one of her arms, holding it tightly. “Just because you physically have a hand on her doesn’t mean that you get her over me,” Dimitri said, and Byleth realized that he was right there next to them both, hovering over like he was trying to keep something from happening. Having no idea how they’d gotten so close without her noticing a thing, she wanted to ask what was going on, but she was drawn to looking at the group gathered a few paces away instead.

They were all staring intently at the trio, watching the fireworks for themselves, and Byleth recognized them as being people from both the Lions and the Eagles, standing shoulder-beside-shoulder as if their groups didn’t matter in that moment. None of them were saying a word, some looked unamused with what was happening, but it didn’t seem like they were watching anything too out of the ordinary, until, coming up behind them and pushing her way through their human wall was Mercedes, her eyes narrowed in on what was happening. “I thought we were above fighting like this! Back away from Byleth right now, both of you!” she demanded, and Edelgard and Dimitri shared a look between them before doing as they were told. “What in the goddess’ name were you thinking? I thought we liked her being here, we don’t want to scare her away!”

“Wasn’t aware that you were in charge around here,” Edelgard muttered, casting a longing look in Byleth’s direction. “I support your choice regardless of what you make, but know that I personally would love having you in the Black Eagles this year.”

Mercedes was right there next to Byleth at that point, checking to make sure she hadn’t been bruised in everything, and when she found no lasting marks on her arm she turned to look at Dimitri, giving no mind to Edelgard’s retreating form. “You can’t corner someone like that, even if they’re trying to take someone we’ve already claimed for our own. Don’t you remember the last time you and Edelgard disagreed on where someone should be? Two broken teeth and a hospital bill for a fractured ankle, on Lady Rhea’s desk!”

“And it was a shame that he chose not to stay here with us, he was a joyful fellow.” Bowing his head respectfully, Dimitri seemed to be acting apologetic about his actions but he never quite got to vocalizing the apology, instead repeating what Edelgard had said about supporting the choice no matter what was made, before tacking on, “Of course, Mercedes would be distraught if you chose anyone but us, so make that decision wisely.”

“Ignore him, I will still be your friend no matter which group you select. After all, we’re all quite close here, even with the different houses we associate with.” Mercedes gave Byleth her sweet smile and got a blank expression in return, which made her exuberance fade into a sterner look. “Why don’t you show me how happy you are to know that you have friends here in all of us? I’m sure you’d be lovely if you’d smile.”

Byleth knew stating that she couldn’t smile wouldn’t work a second time, but her attention was grabbed by something happening in the wake of the entire crowd dispersing. There were more people coming inside the door, loudly talking and laughing as they made their way inside, and at the sight of the person at the head Byleth felt herself stiffen up. She saw that Claude was in the middle of a most likely riveting conversation with Hilda and Lorenz, all three of them wearing dark sunglasses that had yellow bands on their arms, and as she watched the three of them come in and go right to their corner table, the fact that they hadn’t come over to try badgering her into joining them was what made a lasting impact. “Edelgard said that the Golden Deer is where people who aren’t really anything go,” she recalled, Mercedes giving Edelgard a questioning glance over at her table where she’d made herself comfortable surrounded by friends. “Does that mean that those three aren’t as important as they look?”

“I…don’t know how to answer that,” Mercedes admitted, taking her eyes off of Edelgard and moving them over to the three now at the yellow table. “Claude doesn’t say much about his background, but Hilda and Lorenz both come from families of considerable wealth, even though they don’t do much to earn it.”

“Are they the snooty rich kids Father warned me about, then?” The question felt wrong to ask, because Byleth had begun to believe that statement had been made by Jeralt to try and dissuade her from getting close to anyone, rather than because it was the truth. Based on how Mercedes awkwardly laughed instead of answering it, that seemed to solidify that stance. “I like you and Annette, but what if I went with them?”

“I heard my name, what’s going on?” Poking her head into the conversation out of nowhere, Annette was quickly caught up to speed while Byleth kept staring at the three still wearing their sunglasses indoors. They looked so cool and confident, like they were people who weren’t going to cause trouble for the sake of being better than everyone else, and as someone who’d always been a loner in life Byleth couldn’t help but want to try getting closer to people like that. Once she knew what was going on, Annette helped make the decision a little easier: “Oh, definitely you should join them if they’ll let you! If you get to be one of them, then maybe we’ll get to get invited to their parties because you can bring us! I’ve always wanted to know what it’s like to be at one of those…”

“A rather superficial reason,” Mercedes pointed out, “but a valid one. We’d support you completely if you decided you wanted to be one of them rather than one of us, or if you wanted to join the Eagles instead as well.”

What Byleth wanted to ask was why it mattered so much which group she spent her time with, if everyone who was there was friends anyway. She wasn’t quite understanding why they were forcing themselves to divide up in such a way, and why they were so serious about it happening, but she couldn’t find a way to ask it without coming off as rude. “I’ll decide at the end of today,” she finally said after giving it much thought. “It’s between the Lions and Deer, though, I don’t think I could do the Eagles.” She’d thought she said that quietly, but as she walked over to the Deer table to give them a try, she saw the dirty looks from the Eagles, and she knew that Annette or Mercedes would explain her decision to the Lions if they hadn’t heard it themselves.

“Well, hello there stranger, fancy seeing you come spend time with us,” Claude greeted, flipping his sunglasses up onto the top of his head. His hair wasn’t as slick as it had been the day before, a mess of curls that were styled in some way, but much more natural than she’d seem him previously. “You decide that the war between Eagle and Lion was too much to bear and give us a try?”

“Something like that,” she replied, trying not to stare at him even though he was looking directly at her, almost as if his eyes were able to see into her soul. “I haven’t picked where I want to be yet.”

“She has impeccable taste if she selects us as her home while she’s a member here,” Lorenz said, taking his glasses off outright and setting them down next to the plastic coffee cup that he’d carried inside with him. “Not that you would _know_ being a Deer is an elite claim to make, given your relative naivety towards how this whole thing works, but there will be time for you to learn.”

Hilda, covering her mouth with the back of her hand as she tried not to laugh at how snooty and stuck-up what Lorenz had said was, almost knocked over her own coffee cup when she leaned over into the table, trying to look invested in the conversation she was going to try starting. “I heard from Marianne last night that Byleth here was out at dinner with her father, but that was all I got out of her before she said she didn’t want to talk about it anymore. What’s up with that?”

“That’s really it, I don’t know what else there is to know about what happened. I was there with Father and she was there and I said hello and she was very shy.” Already the details of what had happened in the conversation were fuzzy, despite them being from the night before, but Byleth hadn’t really wanted to remember what had happened. “It was not very fun, but she seems nice.”

“She likes Marianne, that’s another reason to keep her,” Claude said as he mimed checking something off of a list, giving Byleth a small smile after. “What about us, tell us what you think of us? Maybe specifically the charming fellow with the dazzling eyes sitting across from you, if you don’t mind?”

While she wasn’t sure if it was a trap or not, Byleth didn’t have anything rude to say and therefore chose to answer him honestly. “You seem nice too, but I don’t really know you.”

“Her judgment may be off if she thinks Claude’s nice,” Hilda loudly whispered over towards Lorenz, who nodded in agreement, while Claude snorted and tried ignoring them both by standing up and going to sit next to Byleth rather than between the two of them. “H-hey, get back here! You know that there’s assigned seating here!”

“Sorry, Hilda, I’ll be spending time with my new friend Byleth today, since she thinks I’m nice and all. No hard feelings.” He blew a kiss in Hilda’s direction and she dodged it, causing him and Lorenz both to start laughing, while Byleth sat there confused about how she was supposed to feel in the moment. She was completely aware that they were playing around, but she didn’t know how serious what Claude had said about her was; if he thought she was a friend just for thinking he was nice, maybe she didn’t want to be a Deer after all. “What’s with the face there, Byleth? Looking a little lost in your thoughts, huh?”

She hadn’t even been aware that she was making any sort of face beyond her usual, so Claude’s words caught her off-guard. “Oh, I was just thinking about how nice it was to have someone who wants to spend time with me,” she replied, shaking off any residual thoughts that may have been crossing her mind. “Other than Father, no one really spent time with me before yesterday.”

“And now you’re miss popular, how cool is that?” He put a hand on her shoulder and gave it a couple pats, which she looked at in disbelief. “Lemme guess, you’re not exactly used to all this attention and you’re just so overwhelmed that you keep making that face.”

“I’m doing it again?” Now Byleth really didn’t understand what expression she could be making that had been called out twice in such quick succession, but rather than explaining what she was doing to her, Claude pulled out his phone and snapped a picture of her, giving that as his proof for what he was seeing. “That’s…just how I look, I can’t help that,” she said, finding the picture to be showing her in her default expression, straight lips and wide eyes. “I didn’t know that my normal face was a problem.”

“At least she isn’t trying to smile again,” Lorenz muttered across the table towards Hilda, who nodded in agreement, and Byleth felt for the first time that she wasn’t as welcome by all as she’d thought there at that table.

Claude, after deleting the picture so that it wasn’t kept on his phone, gave Lorenz and Hilda both a disgusted look, showing how unhappy he was with how they were both acting, before standing up, getting behind Byleth and placing _both_ hands on her shoulders instead. “I think she just needs a chance to get comfortable and loosen up,” he explained, as he began digging his thumbs into the muscles of her neck and shoulders. “Something that isn’t going to be possible with the two of you yapping all day.”

“I think someone has a new favorite,” Hilda huffed, “and he’s making it way too obvious that he prefers her to us already! Ugh, not fair at all!”

Her eyes squinting as she tried not to react too much to the shoulder massage she was receiving, Byleth replied to Hilda with a genuine, “Why would I be his favorite? He barely knows me. That doesn’t make any sense.”

The two across the table looked at each other, before simultaneously grabbing their drinks and standing up. They made it a few steps away before Claude asked them what was going on, to which Lorenz answered, “We’re going to go outside for a bit to talk, so we aren’t interrupting whatever’s going on here between you two.”

“Plus, we’re still waiting on everyone else and I’d like to greet them at the door for a change, rather than be lazy old Hilda sitting in her normal seat.” The way she spoke in a sing-song made Byleth—who couldn’t see the way she’d swayed and knocked her long pigtails from side to side—immediately distrust what she was saying, and she tensed up at the idea that she was being bullied by the pair.

“Don’t pay them too much attention, they’re just having fun.” Trying to get his fingers deeper into the tense muscles, Claude leaned in closer to Byleth’s head and whispered, “Besides, I know them both well enough to know that at least one of them likes you. No prize for making the right guess, it’s really obvious even not knowing them.”

It may have been obvious to Claude, but Byleth didn’t have a clue which one of them wasn’t as nasty as they were acting, and she wasn’t going to guess the wrong one and have that be something she’d need to live down. Instead, she chose to stay quiet as Claude finished giving his massage before sitting back down next to her, looking her right in the face with a smile that felt warm and genuine to her. “Do you think everyone else here is judging me for talking to you?” she asked him, knowing that where she chose to be had been such a hot topic earlier. “I don’t want to cause you any problems.”

“No way, if anyone has an issue they can take it up with me, and by ‘me’ I mean I’ll get Raphael to strong-arm them into dropping the subject. Dude’s built like a house but wouldn’t hurt a fly, but I think people forget that second part.” Laughing, Claude must have been hoping to get Byleth to try smiling again, but she remained rather straight-faced. “What gives with the sour look, if you don’t mind me asking? No idea how you’re supposed to feel about anything?”

“I’ve never been good at emotions,” she replied. “Father said when I was a baby, I never cried unless I was in horrible pain, which only happened once that he remembers. Other kids picked on me for being so…boring when I was in school, and so I never talked to people and now I’m not good at social interactions either.”

“If it makes you feel better, I don’t think you’re half-bad at talking to people. You handled all of the wild and crazy characters around here without turning tail and running, you’ve got a better grasp on talking to people than you think.” Claude winked at her and she froze, seeing the confidence and friendliness in his face with the gesture and feeling like she had something bubbling up inside of her at it. Never before had Byleth felt that before, a fluttering of sorts that seemed to be wedged in her windpipe, but she sputtered and tried to say how she felt, and only air was coming out to meet them instead of the intended words. “Do you need some water?” he asked, seeing her coughing and trying to say something that was not working for her. “I can go get you some, if you need.”

They both heard someone from another table yell that they were on it (it sounded like Mercedes’ voice, but Byleth was too busy trying not to choke that she couldn’t be certain), and until that plastic cup was in front of her and she was able to sip from it to calm her throat, all she could do was cough and attempt to get words out. Once the sensation had passed, and the water was downed, she gave a thank-you to the deliverer, who had in fact been Mercedes, before looking at Claude and trying her best to wink back at him. “I appreciate your kind words,” she finally said, not sure why that had been so hard to get out in the first place. “You’re a very nice person, Claude, and I mean it.”

“Heh, thanks, means a lot to hear that after I just watched you nearly choke to death on your own breath.” Claude’s smile felt like it should have been contagious, but Byleth couldn’t return the favor for more than a tiny uptick of one corner of her mouth, a motion that Jeralt would have noticed because he was used to seeing his daughter’s tiny smiles, but someone unfamiliar with them such as Claude wouldn’t notice a thing. “C’mon, let’s get into better seats for when everyone else gets in here, I want to see Hilda’s face when she sees you in her spot. She’ll lose her mind!”

Going along with him felt like the natural decision, but when Byleth stood up and turned she saw Mercedes still there, watching her with her hands folded in front of her and a curious tilt to her head. “Shall I assume you’re going to stick with the Deer, given how close to Claude you’ve already gotten?” she asked, and Byleth, not knowing how to answer, instead dodged the question completely and went around the table. “I’ll take that as a yes, but don’t forget that we can still be friends even if you’re one of them!”

“Does everyone who joins this club get hassled like that for where they go?” Byleth’s question came as she was sitting in the chair at Claude’s right hand, which had pink tape all around its back. “Or am I a special case?”

“Pretty standard,” Claude told her in reply, motioning with his head towards a brunette over at the Black Eagles table. “Last new person here was Dorothea, she got an earful from everyone until Edelgard was able to snatch her up for herself. Apparently a songstress can hang with the political brats, but none of the rest of us can.”

Byleth looked over at the table he was talking about, seeing them off in their own world with their one member under the table and a heated discussion happening up above, and she could tell that Dorothea looked like she wasn’t where she belonged, not really giving any input to the conversation. “Why doesn’t she just leave them, then?”

“Because once you’ve picked your ‘house’ you don’t leave it, they become your family here. It’s why it’s a big deal, even though we try to pretend it isn’t important. That’s mostly so that people’s feelings don’t get hurt when they don’t get to be in the house they want.” Doing as he had the day before, Claude leaned back in his chair and propped his feet up on the table, but this time he slid his sunglasses back down on his face and turned to look at Byleth. “Not like you’ll regret joining the Deer, right?”

Unlike when Mercedes had asked about it, she felt like she could answer him. “I don’t think I could regret a thing if it means having a friend like you.”


	2. Chapter 2

The change from being at home all day, every day to being stuck in a social club five days a week was jarring for Byleth, but after the first couple of weeks she was finding it easier to enjoy her time with her new friends. She began to understand how the club itself worked, how sometimes it would be everyone present and other times it would be only a small number of them because the rest would be in classes. She was assured that bringing her computer to do work of her own was allowed, since she wasn’t going to be taking classes with the rest of them, and she spent a lot of the slower times working on different projects she’d started over her college career.

Usually the only person she could count on being there with her every day was Mercedes, because as she found out, Mercedes was actually older than her, and was only part of the club because she was a former student that hadn’t had anything better to do with her time after graduating from the monastery’s school. “Some of the others are just about finished with their studies, and then there are some that still have quite some time,” Mercedes explained one of those afternoons, when it was only the two of them in the building, sitting up against a chilled brick wall as Byleth typed frantically on her keyboard. “I’ll probably leave when all of the ones that started my last year as a student graduate, just because I’ve known them so long…but that would mean leaving Annette and I…”

“She’s your best friend,” Byleth said, not breaking her stride in typing. “You don’t want to lose that, I understand.”

“Yes, definitely! She has other friends, certainly, but I would miss having her bright personality in my life on a daily basis.” True to that, Mercedes rarely was without Annette at her side on normal days, something that Byleth would see from her now-permanent seat at the Golden Deer table. Her relationship with Mercedes was stronger than most of the relationships she had with the people she sat with, but she wasn’t going to let herself think she’d made the wrong choice because of that.

She’d gotten seated right between Leonie and Ignatz, who was a young-looking boy with thick glasses who always talked about wanting to get into art classes that the school didn’t offer to students without recommendations. It was sometimes difficult to listen to what was being said across the table when Leonie would be pestering her about how her father was doing, or when Raphael would ask Ignatz something and the two of them would be talking loudly (the volume was one more than the other, though). But she couldn’t complain about it because she felt wanted there in that spot, especially when she’d get a glance at Claude when he’d be in the middle of a conversation with someone else and he’d wink at her, before stopping all voices to say something to her specifically. He was doing his part to make sure that she was welcomed, even if everyone else wasn’t on the same page about it.

Every day on the way home Jeralt would ask what Byleth had done that day, and most of the time she’d tell him, “I worked on some projects and talked to my friends,” because to her, that was all she had done. There were a few times she would mention someone specific by name and he’d ask her who that was, nodding and grunting as she’d explain them as best as she could, but the fact that he was getting any information at all from her was something he wouldn’t have expected. After she told him her day, she’d ask him about his and he’d give her a shrug before saying it was business as always, and that consistency was something that she appreciated having in her life.

The disarray that her world was thrown into the day he came to pick her up and someone else was in the car was not anything she’d been expecting. That was the day that she walked out to the curb with a couple of the other Deer, all talking about personal preferences on how to spend their weekends, when she saw that the passenger seat in the car was taken by a rather broad-shouldered man. “I think Father picked up a stranger,” she said, interrupting the discussion going on around her. “He didn’t tell me he was bringing anyone home, I wonder if that’s a boyfriend or something…”

“You mean you don’t know who that is?” Leonie, beginning to shake in excitement, jumped out in front of Byleth to stop her from walking any further. “How do you not know Alois? He’s one of the other security guards here at the monastery, does that sound familiar?”

“Oh, yeah, it does,” Byleth replied, remembering the time at the restaurant where her father had mentioned an Alois before dropping the topic completely. “I haven’t met him before, but I guess that’s going to change.”

The other girl they were with, a smaller girl whose dark roots were beginning to show on her white hair, looked at the two with a pout. “Or you could just come home with me and fix my hair,” she suggested, trying to get the topic back on track. “I really need help, and I’m not asking Edelgard to do it again.”

“Not this weekend, Lysithea, but maybe in the future.” Knowing that her friend there was a bit young for her to be going home with, Byleth wasn’t sure how else she was supposed to answer that, and she also didn’t know how to respond to the overly excited look in Leonie’s eyes that was staring her down. “Leonie, you know Alois, how do I talk to him?”

“Just like your father, I’d assume! You’ll be great at talking to him, he’s not bad at all!” Clapping a few times as she finally stepped aside, Leonie watched as Byleth walked away, dropping her hands once she wasn’t close anymore. “Either she’s going to get along with him, or we are going to have a huge earful next week about how bad this went,” she said to Lysithea, who shrugged and grumbled something about wanting her hair fixed.

Trying to get what she’d just gotten out of to clear her mind, Byleth was preparing herself for a conversation she hadn’t been expecting as she got to the car; she was surprised when the door she’d usually open for herself came open and the broad-shouldered Alois got out, opening the rear door for her. “A pleasure to assist a dear friend’s child,” he told her, his voice jovial but also booming, no surprise coming from a man that looked like he did. “Come, let’s get to know each other on the ride back to your home!” She blankly stared at him and nodded before getting inside, and he got back in for himself. “Not one of many words, are you, Byleth?”

“How do you know my name?” she instinctively asked, before looking at her father’s expression in the rearview mirror, seeing him wince. “Oh, Father told you.”

The wince only grew deeper, as evidenced by how Jeralt was actually sinking back into his seat despite beginning to make the drive home. “That’s not quite it, kid, but…I told you, a story for another day. And against my will, today’s that day.”

“Don’t make it sound like you weren’t all for this, Jeralt! The moment that we were able to work together you knew that this would be coming, just like the old days!” Chuckling to himself, Alois offered back a hand to Byleth, but she merely stared at it until he retracted it. “I knew you when you were just a little thing, back before your father chose to disappear up until dear Leonie managed to meet him and tell me about how amazing she found him to be. A bit of a blow to the ego, being told I’m not as cool as Jeralt, but knowing he was still alive was all I could ask for.”

“You knew me as a child…” Her voice trailing off as she once again looked at her father, seeing that he was trying to be less disappointed in his expressions knowing that he was being watched. There were a lot of things she didn’t know about herself, and her childhood was one of those things, but she’d never found herself in a position where she could ask about it. While she knew that this was an opportunity she’d never been given before, she wasn’t sure if she was ready to delve into those sorts of stories when she still needed to know the man who’d most likely be telling them. “I’m not really a kid anymore, I’m twenty years old, so I hope you weren’t expecting to meet child me again.”

“Goddess no, I know how the years work, even if they seem to have missed your father completely!” Alois was loud, but he wasn’t terrifyingly so, and because they were in a vehicle there was some restraint on what he could do. That didn’t stop him from reaching over and placing a hand on Jeralt’s arm, only for it to be knocked off. “It was quite the surprise being able to meet him again and see him remaining so youthful, and you…you’ve grown up into quite the woman! No wonder Lady Rhea wanted you to be part of their little club, you must be a wonderful influence on all of those scallywags!”

“All I do is sit at the table and sometimes work on things on my computer,” Byleth said, not knowing that her being so levelheaded and focused on tasks might have been the influence he was referring to. “I talk too, but only when they ask me something. They’re all good friends and I’m still an outsider, and I’m fine with that.”

Alois, giving a breathy laugh as he was trying not to let all of his expectations about the meeting fly out the window, looked at Jeralt with what seemed to be a pained smile. “I never would have suspected you to raise such an upstanding citizen, she doesn’t even realize how important her dedication is to the bettering of the students here at Garreg Mach!”

“That would be because up until I got the job here, she didn’t know this place was more than a church and she was better off for it.” Jeralt’s words were scathing, to the point that Byleth knew that he was not thrilled with what they were discussing, and it made her wonder why Alois was going home with them in the first place. “She was given the chance to grow up how she wanted, not how Rhea wanted her to be.”

“Please, Jeralt, refer to her with respect, it’s the least you can do for the woman who saved your—” He was cut off by Jeralt harshly swerving the car, nearly sending them into the oncoming lane of traffic, and once their route was corrected and all of their breath was caught from the shock, Alois tried to go back to what he was saying, only for it to happen a second time. “I get it, you don’t want me harping on that in front of Byleth, don’t scare me into thinking I’ll be meeting the goddess earlier than expected,” he said, his hand placed over his chest as he took in dramatic breaths. “Consider the subject dropped.”

To retaliate, Jeralt didn’t seem like he would say another word for the rest of the ride home, leaving Byleth to have to step in and fill the now-quiet air, lest she allow Alois to say something else that her father didn’t approve of. “Why do you think I am a good influence on the students? They all seem pretty fine to me, and they already had Mercedes there to influence them.”

“That is a decision made by Lady Rhea and her assistant, I merely heard it through the grapevine,” Alois answered, trying to return to his originally cheerful state after the multiple scares they’d gone through on the drive. “However, I know that several of the students in that club are nothing but trouble when you leave them unattended. That Riegan kid, for instance, have you met him? He’s notorious for trying to prank the staff at every chance he gets, and he always eludes capture at the last second.”

“Have I met him?” Byleth repeated, not recognizing the name that Alois had used. “I don’t think I have, but I’ll keep an eye on things. Maybe someone will be able to direct me towards him so I can talk to him and use my ‘good influence’ status.”

“It would be greatly appreciated, not just by myself but by Lady Rhea and everyone else in charge of running the school.” There were a couple of other moments where Alois specifically mentioned a student by name, but she couldn’t say that she knew who any of them were except for one, and that was because he was speaking of the great financial support the Hresvelg family had given the academy in years past and she remembered that was Edelgard’s last name, so it had to have been related to her. For being just a security guard for the academy Alois seemed to know a lot about the students and where they came from, and even if Byleth didn’t know who he was talking about, she had names to pull out to ask questions the next time she was at the club.

When they finally got to the apartment and got out of the car, Byleth found herself immediately wrapped in a bear hug from Alois, who she could hear keeping himself from crying with the occasional sniffle. “Break it up, you two, we’re not doing this in the parking lot,” Jeralt commanded, and Alois complied without hesitation, leaving Byleth to make sure she had her computer bag before she followed the two men up to the apartment. There were papers affixed to the door when they got there, which Jeralt pulled down before Byleth could see what they were, and he was muttering under his breath as he unlocked the door and they all filed inside. “Welcome to our home, it ain’t much but it’s exactly what we need.”

“Rather far from your workplace, that commute will simply be the worst when the weather turns,” Alois pointed out, looking around the sparsely-decorated living room while Byleth took her computer out of the bag and went to sit in her usual spot, assuming she had time to finish what she’d been working on previously while the men talked. That assumption was proved wrong when she couldn’t help but listen in on what they were saying. “You know that Lady Rhea will allow you to move onto the campus if you ask her.”

“The last thing we need is to be right under her thumb all day, every day. Working there is already too close for comfort, I don’t need it to only get more oppressive.” Jeralt glanced in Byleth’s direction, and she feigned looking at her computer screen to try convincing him she wasn’t eavesdropping, but he knew her too well. “C’mon kid, you have to at least make it look like you have something open. You want to know why I don’t like Rhea, don’t you?”

She could see Alois squirming at the lack of title that her father had used, and even though she’d just met him the last thing she wanted was for him to be uncomfortable with being at their home. “I do want to know, but I can wait until you want to tell me all about it. I’m not impatient, I promise.”

“That’s good to hear, was worried you’d try to wrench my lips open about the whole thing.” Jeralt was heading to the kitchen now that he knew his daughter wasn’t going to press further, and Alois was right behind him, hurriedly talking about using the respectful title for the “headmaster and archbishop of the church,” as he so kindly put it. When they came back they were both holding large cans of some free beer that Jeralt had gotten the last time he was at the store, and it was then that she realized that Alois was there so that the old friends could knock back a few drinks and reminisce about the days of old, and she didn’t know if she wanted to be a part of that or not.

On one hand, if Jeralt drank enough to become inebriated (unlikely, but it could happen), he would potentially start spilling details about their lives that she’d been kept in the dark about, specifically about her youth. On the other, if Alois got drunk, there could be other kinds of drama that happened, and on the mysterious third hand if they were both as far from sober as possible, they could devolve into a fight. The first option was the one that Byleth found would make her staying make the most sense, but as it was the second-most unlikely choice, she decided to move her whole arrangement to her bedroom, where she could sit and work on her computer in relative peace.

Her room was nearly as boring as the rest of the house, nothing denoting that a woman with any sorts of interests at all lived in it. The floor was spotless, there weren’t any trinkets lining her furniture, and the walls were bare of any picture frames of any kind except one, which she’d kept as close to her bed as possible for as long as she could remember. She was such a young girl in the picture, five or six years old at the most, holding a fish proudly in front of her while Jeralt had a scarred hand intertwined with her then-short blue hair, him leaning into the frame with a full-face smile, complete with wrinkles that were the only thing to ever show his age. The lake where they’d been fishing had been somewhere they’d only gone the once, because that was the only fish either of them had caught the whole day, but the picture was something that stuck with her forever.

“I’d like to go fishing with you again one of these days, Father,” she said, setting her computer down on her bed and walking to the closet, opening it up to see the tackle box and her fishing rod that she’d received as a high school graduation gift. That had been one of the two presents she received when she graduated an entire year early, the other being a computer that had broken within a year and had to be replaced with the one she currently had. She could remember the look in Jeralt’s eyes when he learned that he’d given her a faulty gift, one of pain and apology that made her feel bad for bringing it up in the first place, but he’d gotten her a new one and taken her out fishing to make up for it.

There were very few places in Fódlan where they hadn’t cast lines together, between the regions of Adrestia, Faerghus, and Leicester, all of which were technically united under one banner but each had their own sorts of traditions and cultures, mixing together in the area around the town of Garreg Mach. They lived within what was considered the border for Faerghus by quite a ways, but previously they’d been everywhere from right outside Adrestia’s largest city to the wilderness somewhere in Leicester, and everywhere they’d called home they’d also known all of the best fishing spots for.

Seeing her rod hanging from its hook in the closet caused an idea to flash in Byleth’s mind and she dove onto the bed, bouncing her computer away until she’d grabbed it and started typing frantically on it. “There’s a fishing pond on the grounds of the Garreg Mach Monastery Academy,” she read on the first listing she’d pulled up, turning her eyes back to the rod hanging untouched. “I wonder if taking the Deer fishing would be allowed, that could be a lot of fun.”

With it being the weekend and there not being any reason for her to be on the school’s campus, Byleth decided she’d investigate that further on her own time come Monday, or whenever she could slip out of the building long enough to see the pond for herself. But now that she was back on her computer, resuming the work she was still in the middle of was top priority, no matter how tempting it was to learn more about where she could potentially fish with her new friends as soon as the coming week. Her project of choice that day was a resume with as many details about herself that she could shove into it, despite being someone who’d never worked a real day in her life. She was already contemplating putting her role at the social club on there as a volunteer job, but it wasn’t as important as marking down all of her education-based accomplishments, between graduating early and nearly finishing three different degree programs concurrently.

Sometimes it was hard to really wrap her head around the fact that up until her father had gotten his new job, she had done nothing except stay at home and do her classwork. The financial burden of taking one-and-a-half times the normal amount of classes each semester was one that she was thankful they didn’t have to worry about, because she’d applied for so many scholarships and the school she’d gone to for her last years of high school had worked to make sure that she wouldn’t need to worry about affording college. They hadn’t accounted for her taking three programs at the same time, though, hence why she’d leaned so heavily into finding scholarships of her own.

Her favorite one to note down that she’d received was one that paid for roughly one class each semester, books and all, because she’d earned it due to writing an essay so completely devoid of any emotional value that the company in charge of the contest told her that they’d pay for her to take psychology courses. That was what prompted her to go with having a psychology degree on top of her education and human sciences ones, and even though she knew she wasn’t going to go anywhere with them, being able to say that she had the three and earned them all in five years total would be a draw for someone to hire her eventually.

“Byleth, are you busy?” she heard Alois asking outside the door, his knocking soft against the mostly-closed door. “I would be interested in speaking with you, if you have the time.”

“Can I finish my work first?” she replied, getting him to back off for a moment, until her door came open anyway with Jeralt leading Alois inside, them standing right in the doorway looking at her as she reluctantly closed her computer and put it aside. “Guess I’ll finish it later. What do you want?”

Jeralt looked as if he did not want to be having the conversation he was about to facilitate, trying to focus on anything except the man beside him and his daughter on the bed. “I want you to know, kid, that this wasn’t my idea and I’m not fully for it, but Alois made a good point about something for once and I wanted him to run it by you.”

“Yes, yes, I was wondering if you would be interested in having your own place to live on the school grounds, much like the students would.” Alois gave Byleth an expectant glance, but she stared lifelessly back at him, not sure what to think about the proposition. They’ve got plenty of spaces in the dormitories if you’re interested, and you could reside there for as long as you’re a member of the Three Houses Club.”

“That’s what it’s called?” Byleth couldn’t be bothered to care about the suggestion itself—she wasn’t going to accept it, and she was sure that her father had made that clear to Alois but had gotten to this point anyway—but she was interested in the name that had been used. “I didn’t know it had a name, no one bothered to tell me that.”

“You’ve dodged the question, Byleth.”

“I’m not going to move out of this place until Father tells me to do it. He’s not telling me to do it, you’re not getting me to leave.” The seriousness in her voice astounded her, because she felt she was sounding a lot more passionate about the topic than she actually was, but she could see Alois stepping back and apologizing for his question in the first place, Jeralt shaking his head at how she’d managed to get him to stand down. “Sorry, I’m more interested in knowing that they have a name for their club. The Three Houses Club…”

“Quite the name for a bunch of stuck-up kids going to a church for their education.” Failing to restrain himself from smirking, Jeralt gave Alois a side-eyed look, watching him flinch even more at how he now had father and daughter both getting on him. “You were a member there once, weren’t you? Bet you’d have strong opinions about knowing whichever house the kid’s found herself in.”

Before Alois could say anything for or against that assumption, Byleth stood up from her bed and stretched for a few seconds, before pulling out a notecard out of the bag she carried her computer in, holding it between two fingers. The card was something that Ignatz had given her a few days prior, with a doodle of herself wearing deer antlers on it. “I chose to join the Golden Deer,” she said, seeing that Alois’ eyes were drawn to the card and the picture. “It wasn’t a hard choice, I’m not rich and I don’t have a father in politics, so it was where I felt I belonged while there.”

He nodded, understanding what she was saying and why she would have made such a choice, but surprisingly he stepped forward to take the card into his own hands. “The art on this is astounding, whoever drew this must have a future in the arts! Golden Deer, you say…I thought you said you hadn’t met the Riegan kid, but you’re right under his wing!”

“Claude’s the troublemaker you’re talking about?” Byleth almost couldn’t believe what she was saying, even though she’d heard about his exploits a time or two while getting to know him. “That doesn’t seem right, why would he be causing problems for the school with his harmless pranks?”

“Kid, you didn’t tell me your buddy you talk about is the one that broke into Rh—sorry, Lady Rhea’s office and jumbled her paperwork,” Jeralt said, giving Byleth a stern, disapproving look. “What else do you know about that he’s done?”

Due to her usually flat expression, Byleth knew she could craft some strong lies in the moment and weave some wild tales about Claude and what he was capable of, but she didn’t want to cause him any more trouble than he probably already got. “I just know about pranks. Didn’t even know he was the one in the offices until now, so that tells you how much I know. Can I please get my card back and go back to my work, I don’t want to push finishing this to another day.”

“Er, yeah, give compliments to the artist for their handiwork.” Passing the card back to her, Alois turned to face Jeralt, whose eyes had settled on the picture next to Byleth’s bed and wasn’t looking at him nor her. “Come on, old friend, let’s go do some more catching up before I have to get back to the monastery, I’d hate to leave stones unturned while I have the chance to cover them.”

“Yeah, yeah, let’s get to it,” he replied, and just as quickly as they’d come inside they were gone, leaving Byleth alone in her room like she liked it. The door wasn’t fully closed so she could hear them beginning their discussion back out in the living room, starting with Alois being shut down about something by Jeralt, and as she settled back down on her bed she cracked a tiny smile to herself before opening the computer to get to work.

* * *

Monday morning Byleth was sitting in her usual seat at the Golden Deer table long before anyone else was there, barring Bernadetta (still under the Eagle table, where she hid every time Byleth came inside) and Mercedes, who had shown up early that day to take care of some things her fellow Lions had asked her to do. She could hear the sounds of one person writing and talking to herself, and the other coming in and out of the building frequently, but none of it really applied to her so she stayed sitting there, thinking about what she was going to drop on her friends when they all arrived.

“Oh, you’re all _alone_?” someone asked, coming up behind her to the point where she could smell whatever scent they’d sprayed on themselves before leaving their room. “Prime time to get to know you, I’d say.” She didn’t turn to see who it was, but that was no problem as he pulled out the chair next to hers (the one belonging to Leonie, she mentally noted, and this guy certainly was not her) and sat down. “Let’s start somewhere simple, do you remember who I am? We exchanged names on your first day here, back when you were still sitting with us.”

Having no choice but to actually acknowledge the guy, she shifted her eyes onto him and his red hair and sly smile. “You’re Sylvain, I couldn’t forget that name with that face,” she replied, watching his eyes light up at her correct recollection. “When we met you tried hitting on me, until I told you I’m too old for you, and then—”

“Then I said that I’m down with cougars, and you didn’t get the joke but Ingrid sure did. Arm stung for almost a week after that one.” He rubbed at part of his bicep, where Byleth definitely remembered him getting slugged for his comment. “I was kind of hoping that maybe today could be the day that we get to know each other better, maybe push past that whole thing and start fresh?”

“Back away from our table, Gautier,” they both heard Hilda say, punctuated with a loud yawn, and both of them turned to see her, Lorenz, and Claude all having arrived in their usual style, sunglasses and two coffees included. “You’re not allowed to try hitting on Byleth, she’s ours and not yours.”

“No one said there was going to be any hitting on her today, I just wanted to know her. Can’t you at least give a guy that much?” Still, with the presence of the three Sylvain was quickly gone and empty chairs were beginning to fill up, and Byleth was left unsure of what had just happened or why, because the conversation hadn’t even been long enough for anything notable to take place.

She watched as they took their seats, pushing Leonie’s chair back in just so she didn’t assume the worst as to why it had been displaced in the first place, and once they were mostly in place she asked, “Is that a normal thing for Sylvain to do?”

“Try to hit on any woman he sees? Definitely.” Hilda flipped her sunglasses off of her face, displacing her bangs as she did. “He eventually gets the hint when someone’s not into him, but it can take a while if you give him any space. Worst he does is say things that you’d rather not hear from him, but it still gets old.”

“Unfortunately he doesn’t seem to have a problem with people older than him being his target,” Byleth replied, fidgeting in her chair as she did. “The first time I met him I said I was too old for him and—”

“Cougar joke, I’ll assume?” Claude interjected, much to Byleth’s surprise, causing her to nod. “Doesn’t surprise me that he’d make that sort of joke to someone, but…now that’s got me thinking, how old do you think _he_ is? Better yet, how old are _you_?”

Hilda immediately hit him in the side with her elbow, getting offended on Byleth’s behalf for what was said. “You don’t ever ask a lady how old she is, Claude, even if she’s clearly not that much older than the rest of us. She must’ve chosen to say that because she wanted to get Sylvain off of her back, not because it’s true or anything.”

“I’m twenty, if that makes any difference.” Cue Hilda and Claude both letting their jaws drop for a moment at the honest answer, as well as Lorenz visibly choking on the mouthful of coffee he’d taken before she’d said anything. “I don’t know how old Sylvain is but I’m sure it’s not that old.”

“There’s no way you’re twenty years old,” Claude said at the same time that Hilda was leaning forward to look at Lorenz, sharing a completely surprised look with him. “I’d guess maybe the same age as these two, maybe the same age as Sylvain actually is, but twenty? Are you sure you know your age?”

“How old are they?” Byleth avoided answering the question she’d been asked because although she knew it wasn’t meant as harmful, she didn’t like the idea that she was being considered unable to recall something so basic. “Sorry, wait, how old is Lorenz, since you don’t ask how old a woman is.”

Setting his cup down so that he didn’t accidentally spill anything while talking, Lorenz answered the question posed to him. “Hilda is newly eighteen, and I am seventeen, but we’re not the ones you should be worried with right now. Dear Claude here must have assumed you were closer in age to him than you are.”

“I can’t help it that I’m younger than the two of you, it’s just how the world works. I should’ve been the one calling our friend here a cougar in this case, geez.” To say that Claude was frustrated about what he’d learned wouldn’t have been quite correct, as he was still speaking with a smile, but he definitely did not look to be as thrilled with learning Byleth’s age as he had been to ask her about it. “You’ve only got two years on Sylvain, but you’ve got…more than that on me.”

“Yeah, poor little baby Claude, he’s so young and he can’t help it,” Hilda mocked, pulling on one of his cheeks for a second before he glared at her to stop. “But I really can’t believe you’re older than just about all of us, Byleth. No wonder they really wanted you in this place with us, they couldn’t keep saddling Mercedes with all of our nonsense forever.”

Byleth knew that what she was hearing was close enough to the truth to let it slide, given that Alois had figured she was there as a good influence on the students, but she elected not to say a word about that. Instead, she decided then was as good a time as any to drop her plan for the day on them and hope for the best. “I thought of something fun we could do today,” she started, watching the three all focus on what she was now saying rather than the contents of their previous discussion. “Should I say it now, or when everyone else gets here?”

“Run it by us now, so we know if it’s worth getting everyone else in on,” Claude replied, before quickly adding, “but it’s not like I really have much authority to say anything here, given that I’m younger than all of you.”

“Oh, shut up, you’ve always acted like you have the command here despite knowing your age,” Lorenz snarkily said directly to him, before grimacing at his own words. “That was rather uncalled for from me, I do apologize for it.”

“I’ll just say it then, before you start fighting.” Reaching down underneath her chair to grab her fishing rod, Byleth procured it and held it up for the others to see. “I read that there is a good fishing lake here at Garreg Mach and I wanted to see if anyone was interested in going to check it out with me.”

Of the three, two looked completely disinterested at the suggestion, but Claude at least seemed ready to give it a chance. “Can’t say I’d really be down for casting a line or any of that, but I know where the lake is and I can at least take you there and back. Bet there’ll be at least one or two others just in the Deer that would go with you, but…no, never mind, we’ll leave it at that.”

“One or two is better than going by myself, I’ll mention it again later. I appreciate the support though, Claude, it means a lot to me.” Byleth tried to sound as thankful as she could, but she was bending down to put her rod away as she was talking and when she popped back up she could see the trio all trying their hardest not to laugh. It did sting slightly to see them acting like that, but without knowing why they were she wasn’t going to level any accusations towards them, and asking about it seemed like it would be a waste of time. It just made sense to leave it where it was and not touch the subject again.

While they waited for the rest of the table to fill up, they ended up getting back to the topic of ages, and as best as they could they were letting her know how old everyone was, as well as if their birthdays were coming up. Someone over at the Eagle table overheard them at one point and came to join the conversation, helping fill in gaps where they could not, and by the time they’d addressed everyone (and the rest of the chairs were filled), Byleth could tell that Linhardt was only there helping to keep himself awake, even if he’d been incredibly helpful while he was there. “Week’s worth of coffee that he got put up to being over here by someone,” Hilda offered, a bet that Lorenz took to heart and went to investigate almost instantly, coming back telling her to pay up because that had indeed been the case.

During the settling of their squabble Byleth suggested the fishing plan to the rest of her new friends, getting an overwhelmingly positive reaction to the idea. Leonie was down for it the moment that Byleth mentioned it was something she did frequently with Jeralt, Raphael wanted to go to see if he could catch any fish with his hands, and Ignatz was interested just to see the water from its shore during the daylight hours. Marianne gave her disapproval without saying anything out loud, merely turning her face away from Byleth’s, and with that reaction Byleth turned to the last person who needed to answer. “Ugh, fishing sounds like it’s not something I’d be any good at,” Lysithea lamented, twirling some of her hair around her fingers. “Plus I don’t want to risk burning my scalp, I have an appointment in Edelgard’s room later today to fix my roots.”

“You know you could’ve done that over the weekend, instead of sitting in your room writing angsty poems about how much you hate your life,” Leonie said, earning Lysithea’s wrath with the one sentence. “It’ll be fun with just those of us who are going, and you might be sad you missed it when we come back with fish and you have nothing.”

“I’m not going to keep the fish, we don’t have anywhere to store them.” It was the one oversight that Byleth had regretfully committed in her plans, remembering to grab her rod and tackle box but nothing to keep any catches in. “So Lysithea can just come next time to get her fish.”

“Who said I wanted a fish?”

Blinking like she was being asked a dumb question, Byleth replied, “Leonie did, just now.”

“Well she’s wrong, I don’t want a stupid, slimy fish, and I don’t want to go fishing with you whenever you go again!” Crossing her arms over her chest and _hmph_ ing like a petulant child, Lysithea ended the conversation about fishing right then, only to be the one most vocal about not wanting to be left behind with Hilda, Lorenz, and Marianne when the time came for the majority of the Deer to head out to the lake. They both didn’t seem to mind keeping her there with them, but she certainly felt like she was being betrayed by her friends by not getting to go with them.

Not letting that deter her journey to find somewhere new to fish, Byleth and everyone who was going with her set out by walking straight out the front door, earning several questions of where they were going and why they were all going together. That was a good part about not all of them going, those left behind being able to explain what was happening, but it seemed that the few shouts of “take me with you!” that came from voices that weren’t Lysithea would have to be dealt with at a later time. “If all goes well, this could be a weekly thing, and maybe the others will get to join sometime,” Claude suggested, leading the way down the sidewalk deeper into the heart of the campus, Byleth right behind him and the other three a few paces back. “Not me, though, I’d rather spend my time outside of that building doing other things.”

“Like breaking into the headmaster’s office?” Byleth asked, feeling a sense of smugness for being able to throw that one at him. “I’ve heard about your exploits from Father and Alois, they call you the Riegan kid and they don’t like you because you break the rules.”

“And let me guess, you’re supposed to be my savior, to teach me the error of my ways.” Turning around and walking backwards, as if he knew the path without needing to look, Claude’s face was lit up in a smile, showing that he wasn’t unhappy with what they were talking about. “I don’t cause any harm with my pranks, and the breaking into Lady Rhea’s office was a one-time thing. Every other time it was someone else, I can assure you of that, I just went in the once to see if I could make it happen like the rest of them can.”

“I don’t want to teach you how to be a better person, because I don’t see anything wrong with what you did.” The fact that Claude jumped to thinking she was going to “teach” him something about his behavior made Byleth wonder how he’d been treated in the past, and she regretted bringing it up in the first place. “Father may disagree with me about that, and I’d hate for him to see you doing something illegal when he knows that I’m your friend, but I don’t want you to change. I like you just the way you are.”

Color began to appear in Claude’s cheeks, and he turned around so that Byleth couldn’t see how much he appreciated her kindness. “Thanks for that, I happen to like me the way I am too. I don’t plan on doing more breaking and entering, not into those offices, you can’t even start to imagine how hard it is to get inside there without being caught.” He stopped walking for a moment, looking back over his shoulder to see that Byleth (and the others) were still there. “But enough about that! May I ask what’s the deal with suddenly wanting to fish? Never took you as a fisherwoman, yet you’ve got all the tools of the trade.”

“It’s something Father and I have done together for as long as I can remember, and when I learned that there’s a lake here I wanted to get to see how good it is for myself.” Swinging her rod over her shoulder just a bit, Byleth was glad that Raphael had offered to carry the tackle box for her so that she wasn’t lugging everything around on her own. “Do you know much about it?”

Claude’s pace picked back up, causing Byleth to adjust hers accordingly. “Other than it being a fishing pond? Can’t say I know much at all. I’ve walked around it a few times, seen some classes out on the shoreline, maybe watched a person or two get thrown in during a fight…but actually fishing there? That’s out of my realm of knowledge.”

“Then I’m going to guess most of you don’t like fishing.” She wasn’t going to speak for those who’d offered to come along, but with knowing that Claude didn’t know anything about the pond (which she’d seen referred to as a lake online, but if the students called in a pond that was what she was going to call it too), her hopes were rather low that anyone else would know anything either. “This will be fun, then. Hopefully no one gets too bored.”

“Nah, no way anyone’ll get bored when you’re actually passionate about something. I bet they’ll be begging you to bring them fishing again in the future.” They continued talking for the rest of the walk, words shared just between them as the other three were too far behind to input anything, and after nearly half an hour’s walk they arrived across the street from what was definitely more in line with a pond than a lake. “And here’s where you’ve been asking me to bring you,” he said with a dramatic bow as he stepped aside, showing off the extent of the water near the heart of the campus. “Remember how to get back on your own, or will you need me to hang around to escort you back?”

Before Byleth could say she would need the escorting, Leonie jumped into the conversation, dragging Ignatz with her. “Between the two of us we can handle it, don’t you worry, Claude! You go back and enjoy your time with Lorenz and the ladies, and we’ll make sure we make it back safe and sound!”

“Because spending time with Lorenz is so much better than spending time out in the fresh air,” he remarked, before giving them all a wave and heading back down the path from which they’d came. They all stood there on the sidewalk, watching him leave, until he was too far in the distance to really tell he was still Claude, and that was when they crossed the street and got up close to the pond’s water.

As Byleth started to explain what they were going to do in regards to actually fishing, she kept finding herself wanting to look back across the road to see if Claude was sneaking around somewhere nearby, not fully certain he was going back to the club building. “Uh, I don’t mean to interrupt you,” Raphael said, dodging the fishing hook that was dangling up above their heads, “but you keep throwin’ that thing around and I’m starting to think that you’re gonna take an eye out with it.”

“Oh, sorry, I didn’t mean to,” she replied, bringing the hook down closer to her own eye level to see that in her distracted state, she hadn’t even put any sort of bobber or fake bait on it. “Do you take trips away from the club often?”

“Not really, we do go to our classes but those are in a different building closer to the club.” Ignatz had taken a seat on the shore and was staring out onto the water, but he was still paying attention to what was being discussed. “I’ve been over here a few times around sunset, the colors reflecting on the water can be beautiful, but for the most part we’re either in our dorms, in class, over at the club, or if we’re lucky, off-campus because someone came to take us out.”

“Usually that’s the kids in the other houses though, some of us ain’t lucky enough to have family who can take us places.” Raphael didn’t sound bothered with what he said, but he certainly made Ignatz uncomfortable with it, as they heard him dig his feet down into the sandy beach. “It’s nice to get to come over here with you guys, I’m havin’ the time of my life and we haven’t really done anything yet!”

“This is the part of campus that’s closer to the church and the offices,” Leonie added, her gaze set towards the buildings looming in the distance. “That’s where Lady Rhea is, and if I understand right, that’s where Jeralt is too.”

Byleth winced at hearing her father’s name be brought up in the conversation, but after a quick mental reminder that it was mostly Leonie’s fault she was even there in the first place, she got over the awkwardness. “He does work with making sure her office isn’t intruded on, but I think it’s weird he does that one place while whoever else is working as a guard has to patrol the rest of the campus. Wouldn’t it make sense to have them both doing everything?”

“There’s not really any trouble around here that doesn’t take place in those offices, so it really does make sense that they’d put their best guard where it counts.” Leonie’s voice was so confident as she spoke, as if she was trying to convince everyone that Jeralt was as great as she made him seem, forgetting that she was speaking to his daughter. “Not that Alois isn’t a great guard, but it was on his shift that the Eagles got into Lady Rhea’s office in the first place, and then again that Claude did the same.”

Having finally set up her hook appropriately, Byleth’s attention to the conversation she was having promptly disappeared, because she was ready to cast and try to catch a fish. Instead of replying to what was being said, she chose to cast the line out into the water, digging her heels down into the sand as she prepared to wait there for a while for something to bite. “That was pretty cool, you’ve gotta show us how to do that again,” Raphael excitedly said, while Leonie, stunned about being ignored, could only nod in agreement. “I wanna be able to tell my sister next time I talk to her that I know how to fish like a pro!”

“I’m not really a ‘pro’ by any means, but I can show you how to make it look like you are.” The water seemed far too calm for anything to be swimming in the pond, but to Byleth’s surprise she was soon having to reel in something that felt to be quite large, with Raphael and Leonie both watching her intently to see how it was done. As the fish came out of the water, dangling from the hook, Byleth was taken back to the picture in her room, her holding the tiny fish to her father’s enjoyment, and she told herself that she wouldn’t let the people she was there with see it and keep the illusion that she always caught big fish. “Here, we have to get it off the hook and toss it back,” she explained as she finished reeling it in, “because I don’t have anything to keep it in.”

“What do ya mean, aren’t we gonna cook it here and eat it?” Eyeing the fish while licking his lips, Raphael had it quickly explained that they didn’t have the materials necessary to cook the fish, an explanation he accepted. “Man, well, next time then. I could go for some fresh-caught fish in my life.”

Back over on the road, a car horn honked at them, but none of them looked to see what it was in reference to, a big mistake when moments later Alois was standing there behind them, watching as Byleth got the hook out of the fish’s mouth and tossed it back into the water. “And just what do you all think you are doing here? Shouldn’t you be down at the Three Houses Club today?”

“No one said we couldn’t go fishing,” Byleth answered without looking to see who was talking to her, even though she recognized Alois’ voice. “So we came fishing. Do you have a problem with that?”

“She just wanted to show us something that she likes, please don’t make us go back right now!” Pushing her hands together as she turned to face Alois, Leonie took a quick glance at his car to see that it was empty and frowned. “The only way you’re getting us to go back is if you go get Jeralt and make him kick us off the shore here.”

“That’s a hard bargain you drive, Miss Pinelli, but I have no intentions of making you leave where you’re at. I was merely asking if you had somewhere else you’re supposed to be right now, but Byleth is correct in that no one said you couldn’t come fishing.” Chuckling, Alois saw Leonie’s face fall further, but he knew that he wasn’t going to accomplish what she wanted him to do, not under any circumstances. “It’s been a long time since I’ve seen students casually out here fishing, and for the ringleader today to not even be a student…well, it brings me hope for what you’re turning that club into, Byleth.”

She halfheartedly nodded, before bluntly asking if everyone could move out of her way so she could cast her line again. “Byleth’s really focused on fishing, you’re going to have to forgive her for not really listenin’ to you,” Raphael said, having stepped aside so he didn’t almost get a hook to the face again. “She’s really good at it, though, so it makes a lot of sense why she focuses so much.”

“No idea where she could get that sort of skill from, Jeralt was never that skilled at catching his own fish back when we’d go spend weekends on the lake together…” Alois trailed off as he looked over at the third student who’d been brought along, seeing how Ignatz’s focus was less on the people he was with and more on the water itself. “You there, are you enjoying the view of the pond? Quite beautiful, isn’t it?”

“O-oh, yes sir, it is!” he chirped in reply, caught by surprise at being spoken to in the first place. On the lenses of Ignatz’s glasses the sunshine and water were reflected, making it impossible to see where he was looking other than where it was he was facing, and never for a second did anyone doubt what it was he’d said.

“Many a school assignment has been written about this pond, I’d think someone as enamored by its beauty as you are would be someone to add to that collection.” Placing his hand on Byleth’s shoulder as she reeled in the line after thinking she’d felt a tug, Alois said, “Watch that boy over there, okay? I’ve got a sneaking suspicion he might be the next to try to break into Lady Rhea’s office and—” He was cut off by the radio attached to his belt loop going off, asking for where he was and for him to arrive at some numbered location as soon as possible. “—er, we’ll go over that next time I see you, hm? Stay out of trouble, all of you.”

“Of course, Alois!” Leonie called as he headed back to his car to leave, and as he was driving away she sat down in the sand, tilting her head up towards Byleth to watch her have to cast the line again. “I can’t believe he came out here to check on us, how cool is that! And he used to go fishing with Jeralt? Like…maybe I need to pick up fishing as a hobby now!”

“If that’s what gets you interested in this, I can’t complain.” Even though she’d only known Leonie for a short time, Byleth was very familiar with her fascination with her father, and even still she wasn’t going to complain if that was used to give them a shared interest. “I’ll bring you out here to teach you as much as I can, and then maybe someday we’ll be able to get him to come with us.”

Leonie’s face lit up in a smile. “You have _no_ idea how much that would mean to me.”

“I think I have some idea.” Casting the line yet again after another missed bite, Byleth was impressed at how active the pond was for looking so otherwise calm, because the bait she’d been putting on the hook had been gone every time she’d reeled in, even though she’d only caught the one fish. Raphael next to her was getting very into the whole process, even offering to put the bait on for her so that he could say he was helping, and they could occasionally hear Ignatz mention something about how great it would be if he could paint the scene he was seeing. Even though she hadn’t been able to get everyone to come with her for the fishing experience, she was content with those she’d convinced to come and perhaps they’d be able to explain to the others that it was a fun time and that they should all come in the future.

After a few hours out in the sun, they were all feeling the sting of burns on their skin and the fun of fishing had begun to wear off, so they decided it was time to head back. They dismantled the hook and put it back in its box, which Raphael was once again happy to help carry as they walked, and true to what she’d said before Leonie and Ignatz led the way for the walk back. Byleth found herself walking alongside Raphael for the trip, talking to him about his sister and why she’d be interested to know that he learned how to fish, before offering to teach her as well if she could. Kindness to that level must not have been something Raphael was usually shown, because he was overjoyed to hear it, and with the arm that wasn’t holding the tackle box he grabbed Byleth and lifted her off the ground, carrying her several steps before putting her back down.

The walk back felt longer than the one to get to the pond, partially because they weren’t moving at Claude’s breakneck speed, and partially because they were all exhausted from their time spent in the sun. It took them just a few minutes more to return, though, and as they walked in through the open front door to the club building Leonie was announcing their arrival, catching the attention of everyone else who was still inside. “Goodness, did none of you think about wearing sunscreen?” Mercedes asked at seeing the quartet of red faces and burnt arms. “You poor things, you’re all going to be in so much pain…”

“It’s not that bad, some of us are used to taking in a lot of sun from doing yard work,” Raphael replied with a laugh. “But some of us…maybe not so much.” That was in reference to Ignatz, who definitely looked worse off than any of the others, although Byleth’s arms and neck were pretty red as well. “Guess we’ll haveta wait until this all heals up before we do that again, huh?”

“I’ll go find some aloe to see if we can help fight it before it gets worse.” Rising from her seat, Mercedes quickly left the room without anyone actually asking her to, something that Byleth chalked up to her perceived role as the group’s caretaker. She came back moments later with a bottle of gel, which she ran right over to the worst-burned and began slathering all over every spot of Ignatz’s skin that looked like it had soaked up too much sun.

Knowing that she’d be next to get that treatment, Byleth went to her usual seat and sat down, realizing that across the table from her were only four people, not the five that there should have been. “Claude’s not with you guys?” Hilda’s question came as Lorenz was counting the returning Deer, while Marianne was trying to hide her eyes from meeting Byleth’s and Lysithea looked like she was repressing some snarky comment about the burns. “I could’ve sworn he left with you. Oh, wait, that’s because he did.”

“He only walked us down there, I have no idea where he went after he said he was headed back. That wasn’t my job to keep track of him, it was my job to go fishing and show everyone else how to do that.” Byleth stopped talking because she could hear Mercedes calling her name, ready to take care of her reddened cheeks, neck, and arms. She stayed silent as the sticky gel got rubbed into her skin, hearing the tutting and warnings about skin cancers coming from Mercedes while she worked, but the moment she was off to cover someone else she was back to talking. “I figured he would’ve been back hours ago.”

“We thought so too, but then we assumed he was staying with you at the pond. Are you certain he didn’t walk back with you and choose to stay outside?” Lorenz sounded almost as if he was accusing Byleth of lying, which she did not appreciate.

Before she could make that feeling clear, however, Hilda jumped back into the conversation with, “No, there’s no way they’d be lying to cover him like that, I really don’t think he stayed at the pond. But that means we don’t have any idea where he is, and if he’s off by himself he could be getting into so much trouble.”

“Yeah, maybe he’s the reason Alois got an urgent call while he was talking to us at the pond,” Byleth replied, trying not to stir the pot but feeling like it was a good choice to make, especially when she saw Hilda’s eyes grow wide. “But seriously, I don’t know where he went because he told me he was coming back here.”

“That’s so Claude, getting himself lost when there’s nothing any of us can do about it.” Trying not to make herself look quite as worried, Hilda pulled out her phone and gave a small gasp when she saw her missed notifications. “Message from Marianne from this morning, oops, sorry for not replying to that,” she said (to which Marianne gave a quiet acceptance of the apology), before running through the rest of what was waiting for her on her phone. “Missed call from Holst, ugh, doesn’t he know that I’m busy and can’t be taking calls from him all day? Missed call from some unknown number, don’t care, three texts from Holst that I’m definitely not replying to now, and, bingo! One message from Claude.”

“How did you get all of that and not respond to any of it?” Lorenz asked her, less interested in what the message from Claude might have said and instead more curious about everything else. “Do you realize this behavior might be why your brother tries getting through to you so obsessively at times?”

“He’ll get over it, I’m nearly an adult now and can do almost anything I want without being under his thumb.” Tossing one of her pigtails over the back of the chair instead of having it tucked between her and the seat, Hilda held out her phone and dramatically read the message out to everyone: “’Hey Hils, got stopped by a group doing community service work, decided to get my hours in today. Tell everyone I died and the funeral will be tomorrow, thanks, you’re amazing.’ Huh, well, that answers that.”

Everyone who’d heard the message get read, which included others at different tables, laughed at how honest Claude had been in it and how Hilda had screwed up his attempt at pranking them. The one exception was Byleth, who proceeded to ask, “Why does he have to do community service hours? I thought he wasn’t in trouble for breaking into the headmaster’s office.”

“Those hours have nothing to do with that, they’re something we all have to do eventually,” Lysithea answered, sounding spiteful as she spoke. “And that jerk said he was going to help me get mine taken care of, but there he is getting his done without me!”

“Wait, he said that to you?” Marianne’s voice came as a surprise, given how relatively quiet she was otherwise, and when Lysithea nodded at her question she gave a small hum before suggesting, “Well, it’ll be work, but you can come do yours with me some time, I always do mine at the stables. I’ve seen some of the others there before, but I know that I can use the help…if you want…”

“Would you look at that, not everyone wants to see Lysithea have to stay behind a year,” Lorenz said to her, getting her to push her chair back and try to look threatening, a confrontation that was finished by Marianne apologizing for saying anything at all and Hilda backing up her blue-haired friend, all while Byleth watched, trying to figure out how everyone in the Golden Deer could manage to put up with one another on a daily basis.

When Jeralt came to pick her up that afternoon, Claude still hadn’t come back and no one had heard anything further from him, but that wasn’t really on anyone’s mind since they knew where he had gone. Byleth had struggled to get her tackle box back intact from Raphael, because he’d been intent on looking through all of its pieces to figure out what they were, and she had to tell Leonie not to follow her out as she was leaving, because as she walked out to the curb all she could think about was how amazing her day had been, all things considered.

“Forget the sunscreen while fishing, huh?” Jeralt asked her the moment she was in her seat, earning a blank stare from a bright red face that had not taken well to the aloe treatment it had been given. “Happens to the best of us. At least you were fully dressed while fishing, I’d assume. Alois can tell you all about what happens when you forget to screen up and forget to get dressed while out on the water.”

“Yeah, he mentioned fishing with you when he stopped by,” Byleth replied, looking at herself and her definitely-burned countenance in the mirror on the sun visor. “Why did you never tell me about that before?”

Jeralt shrugged as he began their usual route home. “Never came up. It only happened a few times that I remember, and who knows how many others that I don’t. I was a different man back then, kid, you have to understand that.”

“I suppose I should understand that, but someday you really should tell me more about yourself from before I knew you. Every thing I learn about you makes me more interested, Father, and I’m going to get those stories out of you.” The smile that came to Byleth’s lips at that wasn’t her usual small one, but rather one that turned both corners of her mouth up, still looking rather emotionless but moving in the right direction; alas, Jeralt didn’t see it because he was driving, but Byleth knew he’d love to know he’d made her smile even that much, just for being himself. “I’d love to know about your wild times on the lake with Alois, whenever you want to tell me.”

“Damn it, he mentioned the lake? That’s most of the story right there, that I can remember anyway. The only person who’d have a solid memory of that weekend…can’t tell us anything about it.” Taking a deep breath, Jeralt’s fingers tensed around the steering wheel as he tried not to lose his focus on the road ahead. “If he’s talking about the time I remember us out there partying, it would’ve been right before you were born, just a couple months. Your mother was there with us, keeping us fed and from getting too crazy on the shore, and that’s really about it.”

“Mother liked fishing as well?”

“Can’t say she did, but she liked being with me and whatever I was doing.” His grip loosened a bit, but Jeralt was still focusing on what was ahead of the car rather than what was inside of it. “Talking about her’s not my favorite thing to do, you know this, kid. How about we leave that for another time? Maybe one where Alois can fill in the gaps I’ve forgotten?” As much as Byleth didn’t want to let him get out of things that easily, she knew that badgering further would only cause him to shut down on her, so accepting his terms was the only option. “Good choice, don’t think there was much else I could say about this.”

“Sorry to bring it up,” she apologized, even though she’d only brought anything up because it had been brought up to her first. “I promise it won’t happen like this again.”

He glanced over at her, and she could see the pain in his eyes at just having to recall a small memory of his former wife. “No, nothing you did wrong here, don’t apologize. I’ll give Alois a talking-to and see what he can do to answer your questions, but from me? You’ve gotten all you’re getting about it.”


	3. Chapter 3

Going down to the fishing pond became something that was expected once a week, usually on Mondays because everyone could be guaranteed to be present at the club that day. Byleth didn’t ever know who all would be going down with her, but it was never less than one other person (that being Raphael, who was the one who’d begged her to make it a weekly thing), and sometimes it grew to including people from other tables. She never kept anything she caught, even when someone would bring a cooler for her to store it in, because she wasn’t going to bother with cleaning and gutting and cooking a fish, no matter how much anyone else wanted to see it happen, and she never let anyone else hold her rod because it was hers and only hers, but it was still a fun weekly adventure.

A week came where Monday’s weather was dreary and wet, complete with lightning flashing across the sky over Garreg Mach, and that became the first week where the trip was made on a later day. Even though she’d been begged to make it on a day where Raphael could still go with her, she decided that she’d make the walk that Wednesday instead, despite that being the day that there was only one other Deer in the club building, and there was no way Marianne was going to decide to go with her. That meant she was either going alone, or it was going to be her with a bunch of Eagles and Lions.

The latter option was the one she went with, without even needing to try. “Hey, I see you have your fishing gear with you, are you planning on going up to the pond today?” Ashe from the Lion table asked her once she’d taken her normal seat and waited to see what would happen. When she looked at him and nodded, a smile lit up his freckled face. “Amazing! I was hoping I could join you today, if it’s not too much trouble? I brought my own gear for the occasion, although it’s not a fishing rod.”

“What kind of gear do you have?” He responded by pulling out a bag and opening it, showing her a collapsible net meant for other kinds of fishing, and she gave a small laugh. “I think it’ll work just fine, you may not catch much but—”

“Oh, hey Ashe, you brought the net! That means we’re going to catch all the fish to feed those stray cats with today!” Coming into the conversation from the Eagle table, the bright blue-haired one known as Caspar seemed rather eager to be involved, even though Byleth had said maybe two sentences to him in her time at the club. “And that means we’re going to be out there with you, doesn’t it?”

“—something like that, sure. Anyone else planning on going, or is it going to be just the two of you?” They both didn’t expect any others to be part of the trip that day, so once more people had arrived in the building the three of them set off, letting everyone know they’d be at the pond and to expect them back later. “I know a shortcut, if we want to go that way,” she said once they were down the road a bit from the club. “It’s kind of through some thickets, so you might get cut up if you’re not careful.”

Caspar laughed, hoisting the tackle box over his head as he’d volunteered to carry it, since Byleth had her rod and Ashe had his bag to carry themselves. “We go running through thickets all the time when we’re search for cats to care for, I think we can handle whatever route you want to take us on!”

“Y-yeah, what he said!” With these two agreeable boys as her companions for the day, Byleth couldn’t see anything possibly going wrong for them, and she was mentally prepared for an overcast day of fishing with two people who could easily become new friends of hers. Her shortcut was definitely shorter to get them to the pond, but it put them on the other side of the water compared to where she’d fished the first time, closer to the buildings where the students were in their classes.

That didn’t deter her from setting up a fishing spot right there and casting her line into the water, while the boys put the net together and began trying to scoop up a fish with it. They were splashing and yelling as they constantly failed over and over at their one task, and their noise was disrupting the fish she was trying to catch, but at someone who was only doing catch-and-release, Byleth couldn’t be too angry about it. She just liked the feel of the breeze off the water, seeing the small ripples on the surface as her line sank down to the bottom, inevitably having its bait stolen by a sneaky fish as she reeled it back in only to cast it out. As long as they were all having fun, then everything would be fine in her world.

“Brother, Brother, look, she’s fishing!” a young voice screamed out, and the suddenness of it appearing nearly made Byleth drop her rod. It wasn’t anyone she recognized, and since it was definitely a female voice it couldn’t have been Ashe or Caspar playing a trick on her. Since the line was out she couldn’t easily stop what she was doing to see what was going on, but that answered itself soon enough when she had a small girl jump in front of her. “Hello there! I see that you’re fishing, can I possibly take a turn next?”

“Please do not mind her, you can easily ignore her request.” The second voice was much older and sterner than the one it was referring to, but yet again Byleth was unable to see who was speaking to her, and the man didn’t seem to want to get in her line of sight. “Flayn, I told you the last time she was over here that you do not need to interact. We shall be going at once, apologies for the interruption.”

“Why do you have to leave?” Byleth asked, not turning her head just in case something went on with the line while it was still out in the water, so she wasn’t sure how her statement would be received by the male. She didn’t even spare a glance towards the girl, even though from her peripheral vision she could see bright green ringlets and a smile easily covering half of her face. “I’m not sharing my rod, but your sister can stay and watch me if she wants.”

The girl loudly gasped, clapping her hands together several times in excitement. “Oh I would love to get to stay and watch, please let me do that, Brother! I have nowhere else I am supposed to be today, after all, I can spend my time here on the shore with this woman and watch her fish all day!”

At the same time that Byleth said she wouldn’t be there all day, the male gave an aggravated sigh and came forward, finally coming to where Byleth could see him, shaking his head and giving muttered complaints. “As much as I appreciate your kindness that you are offering to show Flayn, she simply cannot spend her time out here, not when there are lessons to read and projects to begin work on. Come now, Flayn, we shall not waste a second more of her time on this silly request.”

“It isn’t a silly request, and I’d be happy to let her spend time with me.” Reeling in the line despite nothing having even touched the bobber, Byleth was looking straight at the man, who seemed to be flabbergasted at her insistence to allow his sister to fish with her. “Her name is Flayn, right? I can watch her for you and let her watch me fish, it’s no problem at all with me.”

“That’s not the…you don’t…she has other things she can be doing that are more worth her time than watching you fish!” He looked to be on the brink of throwing his arms up in the air in disgust, and Byleth had to stop herself from conveniently letting her hook hit him in the head as she reeled it in. “The offer is much appreciated, I cannot stress that enough, but this is not something Flayn needs to be focusing on.”

There was a thrill to this back-and-forth that Byleth found herself enjoying, and in an act of defiance she handed the rod itself over to Flayn, who looked like she was going to cry at the gesture. “Too bad, she’s fishing,” she said, shooting out a quick prayer that the girl wasn’t going to destroy one of her most prized possessions in that moment. “You’ll have to come back for her some other time.”

“Whoa, what’s going on here?” Caspar asked, him and Ashe coming to join the conversation with surprised looks on both of their faces. “Shouldn’t you be in the headmaster’s office? What’re you doing out here?”

“Headmaster’s office?” Byleth repeated, recalling that the headmaster and archbishop were the same person, and that person was Lady Rhea, who the man definitely wasn’t. “Caspar, this isn’t the headmaster.”

“Correct, I am not the headmaster, but as her assistant and the one in charge of most social activities, your behavior here is putting a stain on her decision to allow you to be on this esteemed campus.” While it didn’t explain why he was so insistent on not letting his sister fish (and Flayn was currently having the time of her life casting the rod and quickly recalling it, the hook barely breeching the surface of the water every time), it did explain who he was and why both of the boys seemed wary to be around him.

However, Byleth hadn’t met him before and felt that her not knowing who he was seemed rather justified. “Flayn can stay here with me, now that I know where you work I can definitely get her back to you when she’s done.”

“I don’t mean to cut in,” Ashe said, cutting in anyway, “but if Seteth says something we’re usually supposed to listen to it without questioning him. You’re only going to make him angry, and the last time someone did that they were expelled.”

“Excellent recollection of a rather shameful event, mister Ubert, but this is not the time or the place to harp on my transgressions. This is merely a learning moment for miss Eisner, and she shall either grow from it, or Lady Rhea will be hearing about it shortly.” Seteth stood up as tall as he could, puffing out his chest and shoulders to look as physically intimidating as he could, only to immediately drop the act when he heard splashing in the water. They all looked to see Flayn having tossed the rod aside and standing knee-deep in the pond, a fish in her hands and a grin on her face. “Flayn, put that down at once! You have no idea what diseases it carries!”

“It is merely a fish,” Flayn retorted, letting it flop from her hands as she trudged out of the water, the hem of her dress and her stockings completely soaked from the experience. “It would have been perfectly healthy to eat if you would have let me do so, Brother.”

Grabbing the side of his head with one hand, Seteth gave an exasperated glance in Byleth’s direction before stomping to meet his sister on the pond’s side and grabbing her arm, pulling her away from the water. “And this is why I said no to her fishing, in case you were unaware, which you certainly were. Next time, perhaps you can choose to listen to my words before you allow my sister to do as she pleases.”

They were quickly gone, the sounds of Flayn’s complaining and Seteth’s scolding soon disappearing into thin air, and just as fast as it had happened Byleth had moved past it, recovering her rod and returning to her fishing. The two boys weren’t as quick to jump back to what they’d previously been doing, both of them chattering back and forth about how the entire scene could spell trouble for them, whether as a report home to their families or as some sort of punishment for the Three Houses Club. “If Seteth has a problem, he’d be stupid to take it up with anyone except me,” Byleth told them, her eyes back on the pond and her line in the water. “Neither of you did anything wrong.”

“That doesn’t matter if Seteth’s mad at us for being here with you! He could write to my parents that I was helping be disrespectful and then they could choose to take me out of the school! What even do I have going for me if I’m not here?” Caspar sounded like he was on the verge of freaking out, a sentiment shared by Ashe simply based on how he looked to be almost crying. Byleth, unsure of why they’d be feeling that way after such a relatively innocent encounter, decided it would be best to not question anything at all and stick with her fishing.

Eventually the two got over whatever was bothering them and resumed trying to catch fish with their net, and they were much more successful than Byleth found herself that day, although she really was there more to catch and release than keep the fish. The boys seemed to have a purpose for catching small fish, and every time one came out of the water in the net they’d take it out, pass it between themselves for a few moments, before one would dart into the thickets with the fish in hand. “You’re feeding cats?” she asked, watching as it was Ashe’s turn to make the dash into the shrubbery while Caspar cheered and held the net. “That’s an interesting choice of activity.”

“Yeah, well, there’s so many strays around here that need to eat, it’s better we feed them with fish than they break into buildings to feed themselves!” Stamping the end of the net down into the shore, Caspar gave Byleth a determined look before getting distracted by Ashe’s sudden reappearance, the fish having been replaced with a content cat that seemed rather used to being held as it was. “Oh neat, he found Muffin! What a good kitty right there, always so friendly!”

“The cat’s name is Muffin?”

“I tried to grab Bangle too, but she slipped right out from my hand.” Ashe curled the black cat closer to his side, it licking its paws and cleaning its face even while being held. “These are just two of the many, many cats that Caspar and I have tended to during our time so far at Garreg Mach. We could, uh, tell you all about all of them but that would take quite a bit of time and…” A mewl cut him off, the cat ceasing its cleansing to realize where it was and where it wanted to be, and to satisfy it Ashe set it back down and let it run back into the thicket, but Caspar wasn’t quite thrilled with that decision and he dropped the net to chase it wherever it now was.

Byleth, now thoroughly confused about what was going on with these boys and their cat friends, repeated her question about Muffin’s name and once again found no answer, but she did watch Ashe grabbing his net to try getting another fish for a cat to enjoy. “If this is how you want to spend your time I suppose it makes sense,” she said, trying not to get distracted even further from her own fishing but finding the shenanigans happening around her too amusing to fully ignore. “You’re feeding animals that need the love, anyone who would tell you not to do that would be wrong.”

“Thanks for seeing it our way,” Ashe replied with a smile, dipping the net into the water and hopeful about what it would retrieve. “This is something Caspar and I have been doing without anyone else knowing, just in case they want to cause trouble, so now you’re the third person in on our secret.”

“I’ll do my part to make sure it stays secret,” she promised, something she fully intended to be truthful about. As far as she was concerned, what they were doing was perfectly fine, and there wasn’t any reason to be worried that people would cause trouble about it, but she figured that Ashe had some reason for acting so secretive about the cats. But based on how loud and rowdy Caspar was when he emerged from the bushes with two nearly-identical black cats in his hands, the only difference between them being that one had a white tip to one ear, she wasn’t sure how much of a secret their caretaking really was. Not that it was her thing to worry about, though.

They were out at the pond for a lot longer than she’d expected, because the boys were constantly running fish into the bushes for the cats, and true to what she’d heard they had a lot of feline friends afoot. Bangle and Muffin seemed to be the only two that trusted them enough to let them carry them out of the bushes, so she saw quite a bit of those two similar cats, but she heard about many others that were enjoying their free meals. Once they weren’t able to catch fish so regularly they called it a day and everyone packed up their belongings and headed back to the club building, walking through the thicket to take the shortcut over. Byleth swore as they were going she could hear meowing and mewling on all sides, but it may have just been a play by her imagination because neither Caspar nor Ashe seemed to have heard a thing.

When they arrived back at the club it was mostly empty, barring the usual people who were around, and they made an agreement between them to go out and do that more often, although perhaps without the interruption of someone on the school staff. That reminded Byleth that she’d met two other people that day (and not just the cats she admittedly couldn’t stop thinking about), and she had to make it a point to not forget about Seteth or his sister until she could ask her father about them, to see what he knew. Still, with the chatter that happened there in the building during the rest of her time there, it would have been easy to understand forgetting all about those two, but Byleth made sure to be resilient on her stance and constantly mouth their names to herself.

Naturally, it meant that the first thing that she said when Jeralt picked her up was, “Do you know anything about a Seteth or a Flayn? I met them while fishing today.”

“Sure do, heard quite a bit about you and your ‘disrespectful’ behavior once they came back to the office. Never thought you’d be the kind of person to go toe-to-toe with an administrator like that, but you’re always full of surprises.” Jeralt had to suppress a chuckle when he saw Byleth’s narrowed eyes in his direction before he started to drive away from the club building. “Seteth isn’t someone I’ve known as long as Alois or Rhea, don’t worry, I met the guy my first day here. Bit of an…odd fellow, really.”

“I’d say, he wouldn’t let his sister fish and was super bossy with her.” Slumping into her seat, Byleth’s eyes were still narrowed in her father’s direction but she could tell the attempt at being intimidating wasn’t going to be necessary for long, and before they’d even gotten off Garreg Mach’s campus she’d given up the act, waiting for him to keep talking. But as it was with him, he was choosing to stay silent for a while, yet the moment they were away from the monastery she prodded, “Are you going to tell me more, Father?”

“Sorry, wanted to get away from where I couldn’t be sure there’d be hidden ears on me.” Now Jeralt laughed, even though Byleth didn’t see what could possibly be funny with something quite that absurd. “Seteth is Rhea’s right-hand man, in charge of everything official and doing all the work for the academy, even though she gets the credit for it. Seems overworked and like he never takes a day off in his life. And his sister…not really sure what’s up with her. Haven’t said two words to her.”

It was only half of the answer that she was looking for, but when it came to talking to her father, that was honestly more than could be accepted, so it didn’t bother Byleth too much that she didn’t learn anything about Flayn. She at least had a better understanding of why Caspar and Ashe had been acting like they were when Seteth was around, and that crossing paths with him again would require her to be at least a bit better-mannered, and she was sure that she could always learn more in the future. “Did Seteth threaten to have the club shut down?” she asked, knowing that it had seemed to be quite the fear the boys had shared. “I didn’t mean to make that happen if he said anything.”

“No, his only words on that matter were about how you may be a poor influence on those children, which I doubted from the start. You’re just minding your own business and enjoying fishing when you can, how can you be anything bad for them? They’ve encountered much worse if they’ve ever met Rhea.” He was turning them off the normal route home, down a path that it had been years and years since the last time Byleth could recall going down. “But to celebrate you sticking it to him without knowing what it means, let’s cast a few lines before heading home. You’ve got your rod and the tackle box, we can make it work between us.”

As much as Byleth hated sharing her fishing rod with anyone, given the circumstances and the suddenness of the trip, she was sure she could give it to Jeralt for at least a little while. It had been far too long since the last time they’d gone fishing together, and she was honestly glad he’d suggested making it happen, even if she’d already spent a good part of the day fishing with students.

* * *

Things seemed to be rather normal at the Three Houses Club for a while, as routines were set and people were focused on their classes and their work, as well as socializing. Byleth could always count on there being at least one person already there when she’d get dropped off, and several more to join after her arrival, and outside of one person she made an effort to talk to everyone at least once a week. That lone outlier was the very same person who’d constantly hidden away from her every time she’d entered the building, and the way Byleth saw it, if Bernadetta didn’t have any interest in getting to know her, she wasn’t bothered even slightly about it. Based merely on how things had been up to that point, she figured that wasn’t going to ever change, and so when she’d be sitting with the Eagles who were there that day she’d pay no attention whatsoever to the girl furiously scribbling down things into her notebook right nearby.

It was actually Bernadetta who reached out to change the whole situation, which came as a surprise to Byleth but it wasn’t all that unexpected—she’d noticed how the purple-haired girl would occasionally steal glances in her direction when she thought she wasn’t being watched. “You never even say hi to me,” she pointed out one morning when it was just the two of them in the building. “Not a ‘hello, Bernie!’ or a ‘how are you today, Bernie?’ or even a ‘hey, Bernie, nice to see you!’ It’s just…quiet from you to me.”

“You didn’t seem interested in talking,” Byleth replied, giving her perspective on the situation exactly as it was. “You hid under the table whenever I tried, so I stopped trying. I don’t want to spend my time talking to a tablecloth.”

“B-but I’m still a person! I just don’t like talking to people!” Failing to see the problem with the double standard she was presenting, Bernadetta actually closed her notebook and stood up from her chair, so that Byleth could see how she was trembling due to the confrontation. “I just want to know that you see me, is that okay?”

Byleth thought for a second, before shrugging. “Sure, I can do that for you. Do I call you Bernie, since that’s what you call yourself, or Bernadetta, since that’s your actual name?”

“Bernie, please call me Bernie, I’ll beg you to not call me my whole name like that again.” The trembling seemed to only intensify, as Bernie looked at Byleth with wide, pleading eyes that showed a lifetime of suffering behind them. “I promise I’ll do better at not cutting you out of things, if you do better about adding me in.”

“I think I can make that happen,” Byleth said, “but I’ll hold you to that promise.” The truth was that she didn’t expect the promise to be kept for more than maybe the rest of the week, but she was not going to say that out loud. It was already weird enough that she’d been approached like she was, she wasn’t going to potentially make things any weirder. “Is there any reason you said any of this or did you just feel like saying it?”

Bernie refrained from saying anything else, only giving Byleth a meek smile before going back to writing something in her notebook, but Byleth did notice that she didn’t attempt to hide under the table that day. It wasn’t something that anyone called attention to (at least, not that she heard, but she was sitting somewhere else so it could have easily happened when she wasn’t listening), but it was a welcome sight to see Bernie sitting with everyone rather than hiding away. That didn’t change the next day, or the one after that, or any of the ones that directly followed, showing that perhaps just a little bit of friendliness was all she’d needed to change her ways.

Not even the appearance of someone else in the club building was enough to get Bernie to switch back to hiding immediately—instead, the day that they had another newcomer to join them, she had been somewhat active in the conversation at her table when the whole room turned silent at someone unexpected walking inside. “Ahem, I do believe I am in the right place!” Flayn’s cheerful voice rang out, as she brought her hands in front of her and bounced excitedly. “I cannot believe I made it here, and without Brother realizing I have disappeared, no less!”

“Oh dear, you should not be around here,” Mercedes immediately said, pushing herself up out of her seat in time with Byleth doing the same, both of them knowing this was a problem for much different reasons. “Go back to the administrative offices, Flayn, you will worry your brother to the point of—”

“I will not go back until the blue-haired one takes me fishing!” The refusal was decisive, and figuring it was coming had been why Byleth had decided she should stand up as well, so that when Flayn rushed at her she could deflect by pointing out she didn’t have her rod or tackle box with her that day, hence why she wasn’t already fishing. That caused Flayn to begin to pout, her cheeks puffing out as she curled her hands into fists and propped them on her hips, trying to make herself seem more assertive as she repeated her demand.

Instead of it being Byleth telling her to stop, or Mercedes telling her a second time to leave, it was Bernie who spoke up. “I was writing a story about fishing…” she quietly announced, just loud enough that Flayn’s keen ears could pick it up. “I don’t usually let people read my writing, but I would do it for you if it made you happy.”

“It would be an honor to read your story!” It was a small gesture, but it was one that immediately got Flayn to stop demanding something that wasn’t possible that day, at the cost of her drawing a chair at the Eagle table and reading whatever it was that Bernie was showing her. By no means was that a solution to the overall problem, but it solved the one facet of things that was most problematic in that moment.

Within a couple minutes a small group was gathered right outside of the building, all of which had gone outside when Mercedes had in her attempt to get someone to come pick Flayn up. Byleth had initially followed, trying to decide if she wanted to warn Mercedes about how Seteth could potentially react to the current development, but she’d chosen to go back inside when she realized that if it wasn’t her dealing with it, she couldn’t really be to blame for anything. Edelgard was gone from the Eagle table, as was Linhardt, and Dimitri had stepped out from the Lion table, but the entirety of the Deer were still inside, which made Byleth’s decision to go back that much easier.

“Can you believe she showed up to chase _you_ down?” Claude asked in time with Byleth scooting her chair back into place, her eyes over her should to watch Bernie and Flayn having their story time. “Of all the people, never expected it would be you. You treat her to something nice once upon a time, or did she just see you once and decide you were her favorite person ever?”

It took no time at all for Byleth to decide which way to answer that. “Second option. She tried to fish with me the time I took Ashe and Caspar, her brother followed her and told her to leave me alone. She’s just looking to get to do that again, I think.”

“Did you get to meet her brother?” Hilda asked, more interested in the conversation from the moment he’d been brought up, and Byleth nodded because she certainly had, even if she hadn’t been impressed with him. “Geez, he’s such a prick, but he’s a really good-looking prick! Too bad he’s closer in age to my parents than me, or even my brother, because I would definitely be interested if he was younger.” Lorenz fake-gagged at the statement, which Hilda played off with a laugh, flipping her hair over her shoulder.

“Weird thirsting over Seteth aside, I think her being here might be a bigger problem than anyone realizes. Well, anyone except Byleth here, that is.” Claude motioned in Byleth’s direction when he said her name, stunning her as she didn’t know how he could make such an (actually accurate) assumption on so little. “Seteth’s kind of got a thing against this club, finding out his precious little sister has wandered her way in with the ‘bad people’ here could spell the end of us as we know ourselves.”

That got the chatter to start among everyone at the table, from Hilda feeling offended that she’d been called out for what she’d said to Lorenz arguing with her about how questionable saying it had been, from Leonie claiming that Jeralt would save them all to Ignatz asking how that would be possible, and from Raphael not quite getting what was happening to Lysithea and Marianne both trying to explain it without being drowned out by everyone else. The star conversation, though, was the wordless one happening between Claude and Byleth, where he was trying to motivate her through facial expressions and a lot of eyebrow-waggling, and she was failing to catch anything he was doing. “Okay, okay, you’re a hard wall to break,” he finally conceded, despite her not having done anything at all. “I’ll go talk to Flayn to see what’s up, why she’s here, where’s her brother, you know, the stuff a responsible adult like Byleth should do, and you all try not to lose your cool too much more. Got it? Good.”

“Was that what he was trying to tell me to do?” Byleth looked to Hilda for an answer, but she was too busy pulling faces at Lorenz to notice anything else was going on, so she instead elected to go watch the fireworks for herself. Or, at least, she had intended to, but a pair of hands grabbing her shoulders changed her plans completely, and she tilted her head back to find herself looking up at Ashe’s freckled face. “Hello there, what can I do for you?”

“This is all our fault for wanting to go fishing with you that day, isn’t it?” he asked, letting go of Byleth’s shoulders now that he had her attention. It was clear that he was overthinking what was happening, and trying to push the blame onto himself was part of that process, which she wanted to stop before it went too far.

“No, this has nothing to do with you or Caspar, please don’t worry. We’ll handle everything and you won’t need to think any more about this than you already have.” Being comforting was not one of Byleth’s strengths by any stretch of the imagination, but she could see calmness returning to Ashe’s face, and that was what mattered to her. He thanked her for her insight and went back to his seat, which allowed her to return to acting on the plan she’d come up with to see what Claude was planning.

Judging by how the first thing she heard coming from the trio (since Bernie was still involved, whether she wanted to be or not) was Flayn indignantly stating that she had all the permission to be with them right then, she knew it was going to be a treat to listen to the conversation. “Brother _knows_ I came this way, he watched me leave his office earlier,” she insisted, to which Claude was nodding rather intentionally, like he didn’t believe a word he was hearing. “He will be fine until I go back, there is no reason at all for any concern!”

“Yeah, uh, something tells me that’s not right. He knows you just walked out and walked all the way down here and isn’t in here after all our heads? Doubtful, but I don’t think you’re going to change your story, are you?” Flayn shook her head, going over her clearly rehearsed story again, and after hearing it through the second time Claude began dramatically stroking his chin, prompting her to recite the story for a third time. “Enough, I get that you’re really not changing it,” he said to get her to shut up. “You don’t need to remind me again.”

“Please just let me stay! Being a part of this club would be an honor, and I know that Brother will allow it once he knows I have been accepted!” Pulling her hands together to make it look like she was begging, Flayn was trying every trick in the book to make it look like what she was doing had full permission, yet Claude still wasn’t buying it, and neither was Byleth, having moved her chair away from the Deer table to be just that much closer to the action as it was happening. “Please, please, I will ask until I cannot breathe if you tell me no!”

He glanced towards where he knew Byleth was sitting, giving her a _are you hearing this?_ look that she did nothing in return to. “I understand you want to be a part of this great organization,” he began, his eyes going back to Flayn’s now-pouting face, “and I don’t blame you one bit for it, but there’s part of the recruitment process you’re missing and I didn’t want to be the one to break it to you. You’re not allowed to join because you’re not a student at Garreg Mach, and Lady Rhea didn’t tell us to let you in.”

“Oh, I have to ask Lady Rhea and then I can join? That shall be easy, I see her regularly whenever Brother steps out of his office and I get a chance to explore!” All evidence of Flayn’s desperation disappeared, switching over to Claude’s face, which had fallen upon realizing that his statement, while true, was also one that could be easily manipulated against him. “I shall do it at once! Someone please return me to the administrative offices!”

“I don’t think anyone here is going to do that,” Bernie muttered under her breath, before she was looking at Claude with unimpressed (albeit slightly terrified) eyes. “I’ll keep letting her read my stories if you want to do something about any of this.”

Even though it seemed like things were beginning to calm down, Byleth knew that things were far from over, and so she rose from her seat and went to stand at Claude’s side, her mouth pushed to one side in disapproving thought. “I don’t think doing nothing right now is the best course of action,” she said, nudging Claude’s ribs with her elbow. “Someone must do things before Seteth shows up and makes things worse than they are. He already dislikes most of us here, after all.”

“Byleth, this isn’t the time…” The look on Claude’s face could only be described as one that was panicked, and Byleth didn’t understand why that was until Flayn had jumped up on top of her chair and was hollering to everyone that whoever thought her brother hated them was wrong and that he would never hate anyone in that room. Under the cover of her screaming, Claude got next to Byleth’s ear and whispered, “She’ll do whatever she can to defend her brother’s beliefs, even if it means lying right to our faces. Her being here? One hundred percent his attempt to tear this club apart from the inside, using his dear sister.”

“What in the goddess’ name is going on in here?” Dimitri asked, as he approached the two standing by watching the screaming happening, most others having covered their ears or trying to have whispered conversations of their own. After they worked together to catch him up to speed on the way discussions had broken down, he seemed disappointed, but he still had news to bring, which he delivered while adjusting the folds on his sleeves. “We decided that it would be best for Mercedes to call the office to have Seteth retrieve her, because of all the people, she would be the one he’d be most sympathetic with, or at least we assume that will be the case.”

Claude pulled a disgusted face, but quickly laughed it off. “Sounds about right, don’t really think ol’ Seteth would enjoy you or Edelgard being the one making that call. Any idea of what we need to do to keep him from flipping his lid when he walks in here to pick her up, or are we just winging it?”

“Unfortunately we didn’t quite get to that part of the plan before Mercedes was placing the call, and so I assume we have—”

“Seteth’s on his way down here!” Edelgard called out in her commanding voice, walking into the building like a woman on a mission, only to sit down in her usual chair, smiling at the scene happening just seats away. “I suggest you act your age rather than like a child right now, Flayn, if you have any interest in being invited to return.”

If that was meant to put a stop to the insistent bellows that Seteth meant no harm to any of them, it didn’t work, something that Dimitri remarked on. In a split-second decision, Claude looked between Dimitri to Edelgard, then to Flayn, and finally over to Byleth, whom he grabbed by the arm and began trying to take her out of the room. She wasn’t sure what he wanted from her, but she allowed him to steer her out into the side room of the building, where the kitchen was located. “We’re just gonna let good old Dimitri and Edelgard take this one from here,” he said, shutting the door that separated the rooms and jumping up to sit on the countertop. “Not really interested in hearing about my flaws as a person by a guy who’d rather me leave the school, and you’ve said enough about your interaction with him.”

“Why would he rather you leave the school?” Byleth asked, only realizing too late that she knew what the answer was going to be. Naturally the person in charge of the school would want someone who liked playing pranks to leave, because if he went so would those harmless issues.

But what Claude said came as a surprise, because it didn’t even touch on pranks. “He doesn’t like that I’m a nobody, that’s all. Thinks that every student here needs to have a strong backstory, but with me, what you see is what you get. No money, no politics, just a fun-loving guy from the Almyra region here to have a good time.” He knew that the words he spoke carried a heaviness to them and so he let himself go silent at that point, waiting with baited breath for the reaction.

“I…wasn’t expecting that.” Byleth’s honest response came after a few tense moments of looking at Claude to see if he was ever going to what he’d said, and when he didn’t she knew that the ball was in her court. She’d studied a lot about the Almyra region in school, learning about its culture and how it was constantly at odds with the people across the border in Leicester, and while she’d never quite understood why they didn’t get along she’d accepted it as fact. Claude seemed to have just bared one of his deepest secrets to her, as far as she knew, and she needed to come up with a way to internalize it without making him regret his choice. “What, are you going to tell me there’s no other foreigners out there? Seteth would never hold your place of birth against you, I don’t think.”

“Oh, he’s fine with the other ‘international’ students. Petra and Dedue? Yeah, no, they’d never cause any problems at all, it’s only that Almyran kid who’s up to no good.” He drummed his hands on the counter, making a small beat that he stopped as fast as he’d started, seeing that Byleth was floored by the follow-up information he’d just thrown at her. “Come on, you didn’t know that about them?”

“Not a clue. Haven’t really talked to either of them for long so I guess that it makes sense.”

He motioned for her to sit next to him, and once she was up on the counter sandwiched between the refrigerator and Claude’s warm body, he was diving into explaining everything she was missing. “Petra’s from Brigid, which…whatever alliance there is between them and Adrestia, it’s what’s put her here. She’s related to their leader, she’s a perfect fit with the rest of the Eagles. As for Dedue, as far as I get it he was saved from a massacre in Duscur and has been at Dimitri’s side ever since, but I’m not as familiar with their deal as I am everyone else’s. Doesn’t really matter, though, because he’s not looked down on like I am.”

“I really don’t think how Seteth feels about you has anything to do with where you’re from,” she said, not wanting to invalidate Claude’s thinking but also not wanting him to keep convincing himself of lies. “It’s bound to be about your behavior.”

“Right, of course!” Playfully smacking himself on the forehead, Claude forced out a chuckle before dropping his hand and looking into Byleth’s face like a man who’d been hurt one too many times. “Edelgard, Hubert, and whoever the hell they took with them can break into Lady Rhea’s office without any consequences, but I do it _one time_ and I’m suddenly the number one entry on the headmaster’s most hated list, which Seteth is in charge of enforcing. How could I forget that’s how it works?”

“I don’t think that’s how it works at all.”

“That’s how you’re telling me it works. That’s exactly what you’re saying to me.”

There was such desperation in Claude’s voice as he was trying to make his point that Byleth was beginning to think she wasn’t meant to convince him of anything else, of any other possibilities that there could be. It felt strange to accept defeat when she felt like he needed to be less harsh on himself, but the situation seemed hopeless. “Then I’m wrong, and you deserve better than being treated like that. Why stay at this school if you feel you’re being treated unfairly?”

“Same reason you’re here, really.” This time when he laughed, it was less forced but still not joyful in the slightest. “Lady Rhea put out the request that my grandpa send me here for whatever reason, and getting into Garreg Mach is a huge deal, so even with the cultural divide he decided it was best to send me anyway. Why me, of all people, who knows, but she had a point for it. Making me her personal punching bag, perhaps?”

Byleth pursed her lips together, thinking back on the many things she’d heard her father say about the woman in question. “The more I hear about Lady Rhea, the more I hope I never have to meet her,” she decided, shifting her eyes down to the ground so she couldn’t see any reaction Claude would have. “She doesn’t seem very nice.”

“Don’t let anyone hear you say that, it’s not a popular opinion and it’s not one that anyone would want getting back to her. Not saying she’ll do anything if she hears it, but hey, better safe than sorry, yeah?” In return, Byleth nodded, a small smile appearing on her lips, and the mere sight of it had Claude taking in a sharp breath, clutching at his heart. “You know, I’ve heard you say that you don’t know how to smile before, but that? That’s a smile, and that’s something beautiful.”

“Thanks, I think,” she replied, the smile disappearing almost immediately. “Now how do we know when it’s safe to leave this room? I don’t want to deal with Seteth, you don’t want to deal with Seteth, we don’t want Seteth knowing we’re in here.”

He thought for a second before jumping down off the counter, offering her a hand to help her down as well, and then they were creeping towards the door side-by-side, so that they could listen in to what was going on with everyone else. The plan seemed foolproof enough, but they hadn’t accounted for two things: one, Seteth not being there yet, and two, everyone who was there being too loud to hear anything over. They could both pick out distinct voices from within the other room—Hilda and Lorenz laughing, Sylvain and Ingrid having some back and forth between them about how silly the situation was, Flayn resuming yelling about something and having Edelgard try yelling over her—but there was no sign of Seteth’s voice in the din.

“You don’t think Edelgard lied about him coming down here just to get her to shut up, do you?” Byleth asked after they’d been listening in for a few minutes, Claude just shrugging because he wasn’t sure. “I’d hate if she lied, then we’ve been in here for nothing.”

“We got to know each other better being in here, I wouldn’t say that’s for nothing,” he pointed out, “but it would make sense if some lying was happening somewhere. Mercedes probably never actually called anyone.”

The sound of a lock turning open caught their attention, coming from inside the room they were in rather than the other side of the door, and while Byleth didn’t have the slightest of clues as to where its source was, Claude was immediately turning to look at the back door to the kitchen, where they took the trash outside. Right as it came into his sights it was open, Jeralt walking into the building with Alois following behind. “Kid, what’re you doing in here?” he questioned the moment he saw that his daughter was in the room, with someone he was almost certain was underage, no less. “Should we be having a different sort of talk right now?”

Byleth, hearing her father’s voice before knowing he was there, jumped back from the door as Alois was explaining that the person she was there with was “that Riegan kid”, holding out an arm to keep Claude back from trying to start something. “We were hiding from Seteth in here, that’s all,” she explained, seeing a smirk appear first in Jeralt’s eyes before it made its way to his mouth. “Why did you come in here yourself?”

“That would be because Seteth sent me to retrieve his sister, and since I’m not familiar with the place Alois met me here to let me in. And because there were kids loitering around the front door, figured it would be best to come in through the back.” Knowing that her father wouldn’t lie to her about that sort of thing, especially not in front of other people, she accepted his reason, but just because she’d been convinced didn’t mean that Claude had been as well, and getting him to believe the story was a bit trickier.

Mostly because he didn’t want to have to open that door between the rooms if it wasn’t necessary, and Claude wasn’t fully convinced that Jeralt wasn’t telling him a story just to get Seteth to bust him anyway. It took a bit more explanation, and some laughter-filled storytelling from Alois, but eventually he was able to be swayed and they opened the door to let the two security men inside the other room. The sound of Flayn’s immediate screaming and protest that she was allowed to be there and that they had no right to take her back to her brother was the final bit of proof needed to assure Claude he hadn’t been tricked, and after the dust settled and the screaming subsided, he was eager to get back in with everyone else. “Shouldn’t we make sure that back door is locked again?” Byleth looked over at the door that the men had entered through to see it still wide open, but when she turned back Claude was already gone. “Never mind, I’ll handle it.”

The thought did cross her mind to walk out it and never look back on the Three Houses Club, but she ignored it when she remembered how much she genuinely liked everyone she’d met on the other side of the wall. Yes, she was not a student at the academy and didn’t have as great of relationships with the others because of it, but she’d found a family outside of her father and she’d never had that before. There were ups and downs, most certainly, but at the end of the day, getting locked in a kitchen with one of her best friends was a lot better way to spend her time than sitting at home working on classwork.

She just could do without so much in the way of sudden appearances by new people trying to worm their way into her newfound social life

* * *

The very next day Flayn was back at the club, already inside the building when Byleth got there, but she was much calmer than she had been the day before. “I see you’re doing some more reading,” Byleth said as she greeted Bernie with a wave, trying not to look too closely at whatever Flayn was doing there. “What a nice surprise.”

“It’s a good way to pass the time when I’m not feeling like writing, or when I have someone new here with me.” Bernie was trying not to physically acknowledge the girl sitting next to her as well, looking between her opened notebook and Byleth as much as she could. “Y-you can join us, you know!”

She motioned towards the laptop bag she was carrying over her shoulder, making Bernie blurt out an apology for not noticing sooner. “It’s okay, I just need to get this paper done before I forget it was assigned,” she explained, thinking about how she’d begun to slip on getting things done the same day she found out about them, but not wanting to admit to a new pair of ears that she had a somewhat insane work ethic she tried to stick to. “The two of you can have fun, though, I’ll be right over in my usual seat if you need me.”

“I do not think she will be interested in taking me fishing today,” she heard Flayn lament as she walked away, and it took quite a bit of strength to not turn around and say that she had no interest in doing that. After the previous day’s meltdown and the way it had been handled, Byleth had no idea how or why Seteth had allowed for Flayn to come down to the club again, let alone so early in the day, but she wasn’t going to start fights on the matter. Someone else could always fill that role whenever they showed up, after all.

Instead, to occupy her time, she pulled out her computer and set it up, getting right to work on the research for her psychology paper, which hadn’t even had a date for its first draft being completed announced, just that it was going to be due at some point. It was always better for Byleth to get things done as fast as she could, with all of her extra classes she’d been taking since her very first semester in college; even with the distractions of the club around her she’d been trying to stick to that plan, to varying levels of success. If there ever came a day where she didn’t care about finishing school, after everything she’d done already, something big would have had to happened to her, because as far as she was concerned she was committed until the very end.

Not even the arrivals of everyone else who was going to be present that day could pull her away from doing her research, since it was a smaller day there at the club and none of the other Golden Deer were going to be around until in the afternoon when they weren’t in classes of their own. That should have meant that she had the table to herself, allowing for optimal seating (the seat Lorenz usually was in was closest to the outlet and was best for using when she had the laptop with her) and stretching out as she pleased. But things never seemed to stay according to plan, regardless of who it was making the plan, and she should have known based on Flayn being there that the day was far from normal.

First it was Edelgard coming up to her demanding to know if she’d had anything to do with their once-again unwanted visitor, then Hubert coming right after asking the same thing, but in a more intimidating manner than she had. Since Byleth hadn’t known Flayn was going to be around until she’d gotten there herself, the answer did not change between the two times she was asked, but even once they were at their seats she wasn’t sure they believed her. “I don’t know why, but I think Edelgard is still upset I didn’t choose to stick with her,” she mumbled, looking over the top of her computer at the white-haired girl for a moment before getting back to work. “I think I like being a Deer, though, so she can stay upset.”

After about an hour of uninterrupted work on finding sources to refer to when she got to actually writing the paper, Byleth could feel someone hovering behind her, and she quickly darkened the screen of her computer to see Sylvain’s reflection meshing with her own. He barely had time to react before she was closing the device completely and turning to face him, while he tried to act like he was just passing by. Her telling him to explain himself seemed to freeze him in place, stumbling and stammering for a moment before sighing, drawing the chair next to hers to take a seat. “You seemed super into whatever you were doing, so I came to see what was so interesting. Is that a crime?”

“How long were you behind me?” she asked, blinking slowly as she stared at him, trying to make it clear she was not amused by what he’d done. “These are scholarly articles that cost quite a bit to access, you can’t read them off my screen.”

“Didn’t know that, sorry. Wasn’t expecting you to be doing research about single-parent households, kinda got wrapped up in reading it with you.” He leaned forward a bit, shooting her a smile that she continued giving her blank expression at. “I’m guessing that’s not some sort of light reading, so what’s it for? Why that topic?”

“It’s for a paper for a class. Leave me alone, I need to be working.” Turning her head back to her now-closed computer and regretting the decision to have done that, even if it was to keep Sylvain’s nose out of her personal things, she opened it back up without a word and expected him to leave while she was getting it restarted. The opposite happened, as once she was logging back in Sylvain was still sitting there, and he’d been joined by someone from the Eagle table, giving him a questioning look as he was watching Byleth’s every move. She was quite surprised at the second person when she realized she was there, and she gave her a confused expression when she finally looked over at her. “What are you doing here now, Dorothea? I wasn’t expecting you to be joining me.”

Under her breath she muttered, _I wasn’t expecting either of you_ , but she made sure that neither of them heard it. Dorothea didn’t seem to be fazed by the greeting, bouncing her hair and shoulders as she slammed her hands down on Sylvain’s head, ruffling his hair. “Oh, I noticed that you were being harassed by this one here and decided I could do my part to step in and save you. I’m not interrupting anything, am I?”

“Cut it out, my hair takes a lot of work to get styled and you’re screwing with it!” Sylvain was trying to buck her hands off of him but she was only resisting more, while Byleth decided it would be better to ignore them entirely than it would to try and explain yet again that she was trying to get work done. It was beginning to make sense why no one else ever was trying to do homework in the club building, because there were far too many others around to make things a hassle. Eventually Dorothea was able to get Sylvain to leave, but rather than leave for herself as well she took his chair and put her hands under her chin, smiling serenely in Byleth’s direction.

“So, now that he’s gone, you want to tell me what was such a big deal that he couldn’t see it?” she asked, batting her eyelashes even though Byleth wasn’t giving her any attention. “I know that you were hiding something from him, we all heard the laptop slam closed.”

As much as she hated having her work pried into, Byleth knew she wasn’t going to get out of things if she said nothing at all, so she explained it the exact same way she would have to anyone else: she was researching for a paper and needed her space, nothing more and nothing less. Dorothea winked when she got her answer, but she didn’t argue against it, instead getting into some speech about how she wished she could put half as much effort into her own work as Byleth was doing, but it was falling on deaf ears in that moment. “I’m busy, please talk to me some other time,” Byleth said when she got the chance, causing Dorothea to blurt out an apology and leave the table, and then she felt like she was finally going to get the peace and quiet she’d expected when she walked in that morning.

The article she’d been reading was still open, and she resumed going through it the moment she knew she wasn’t being watched. Reading about single-parent homes and how they impacted the social development of children hit closer to her heart than she wanted to talk about with anyone, the big reason why she hadn’t wanted to get into discussions about it with Sylvain or Dorothea; she had no idea how much about her life she knew, and the last thing she wanted was to have to get into her own history with them when she should have been working. It was going to be hard enough keeping her personal life out of the paper itself, keeping it out of the ears, mouths, and minds of the students at the club should have been easier.

That relied on yet another interruption not happening, though, and thankfully for Byleth it never seemed to manifest until she’d finished going through the articles she’d found and had decided which ones would be worth fitting into her paper. The interruption in question was Flayn herself, bounding over to the table when she saw Byleth putting her computer away, doe-eyes on her face and her hands already curled together in front of her. “I could not help but notice that you seem to have finished with your work,” she began, swaying side to side as she tried to look as appealing as possible. “Would that mean that it could be time for you to go fishing, with me as your partner?”

“I don’t have my rod, so no.”

Flayn laughed at Byleth’s blunt statement, as if she didn’t believe it. “There are rods here that we can borrow, right? It does not have to be your own for us to go fishing!”

“Nope, no borrowing rods from anywhere here, because they don’t exist. We’re not going, go back to whatever you were doing and leave me alone about it.” Oh, she could see that her answer was not being taken well, as if it was impossible to believe that not everyone was as into fishing as they were, but Byleth couldn’t do anything about not having her rod with her. She’d set off to do one thing that day and she’d accomplished it, and there wasn’t time to do more than one big activity each day without not giving it her all. She chose working on her paper that day, and fishing would have easily been the next day’s choice, but now that Flayn was around and quite demanding on the subject she wasn’t so sure.

It wouldn’t be too terrible of an idea to actually take Flayn fishing, in terms of enjoyment, but the looming fear that Seteth would show up to put a stop to things was prominent in Byleth’s mind on the matter. She must have been showing her thought process on her face, because Flayn got right up into hers, giving her wide-eyed and very bubbly expression an even more dramatic turn. “If it is Brother you are afraid of, you must not worry!” She spoke like she’d been educated on older books, or by a stuffy older brother who didn’t have any idea how real people talked to each other, but even still believing a word Flayn said was difficult. “He has given me true permission to be here, he spoke with Edelgard and Dimitri and several others to assure that my presence here is allowed!”

“That’s nice, now please back away.” Byleth was making sure to not touch the person so close to her, just in case that action would be used against her in the future. She waited until Flayn had in fact backed up a few steps, maintaining her doe-like expression as she waited for what she expected would be some acceptance of what she’d said. “I’m not going to take you fishing, not until I know your brother isn’t going to kick me out of the club for doing it.”

Flayn’s gasp was loud, like she was trying to suck all of the air out of the surrounding area with it. “He would never do such a thing! Brother may be harsh on everyone, but he wants what he thinks is best for me, and I have told him that being here and being allowed to fish with you would be what I want most!”

“Can’t say I believe that, sorry.” How Byleth wished she could pull her computer back out and start working on something else just to drive her point home, but she could see the frustration returning to Flayn’s face with the constant denials, and she knew that doing anything dramatic like that could have serious consequences. She needed something to step in right then, to save her from the situation spiraling even further downward—and that something came in the form of a Golden Deer trio walking into the building, seeing that there was an unwanted guest at their table, and jumping right to action.

Sure, Claude could have done better about rushing over and telling Flayn to get lost, causing another scene entirely that had the girl protesting the treatment because she was allowed to be there, really! And perhaps Hilda and Lorenz could have done better about not being so loud with their catty whispers, which were always punctuated with laughter that only grated on the person fighting for her right to be there. But the point was that they came in, they saved Byleth from having to be badgered incessantly about going fishing, and they only caused moderate drama between themselves, Flayn, and the majority of the people sitting at the Eagle table, and drama of that nature would be healed in time.

By the time she was picked up by Jeralt that afternoon, Byleth had heard quite enough of the talk that Seteth had put some of the others through the night before, the one in which he told them to accept Flayn as a member of the club or suffer consequences. She’d found herself regretting ever going fishing with the boys that day, because she could have at least prevented the whole issue for a little longer if she hadn’t, or if she’d stuck to fishing on the other side of the pond. She got into the car with a huff, slamming the door and stuffing her computer bag down at her feet, her father noticing how agitated she was and not asking a single question about it.

Sometimes, it was better to let her work through her problems herself. And when the problem in question was fish or face Flayn, either option wasn’t optimal but she was going to have to pick one sooner or later. The choice she went with was to stick to her guns and keep taking her rod to the club, but she made sure that she never actively went to invite Flayn to join her, and no one blamed her for that.


	4. Chapter 4

As the school year droned on, Byleth found herself becoming more and more comfortable being a member of the Three Houses Club, getting closer with people across all three tables and getting to know them all better. In return, they began to fully embrace her presence as a member, not just someone who’d been sent to be one of them by their headmaster, and that meant getting invited into every little thing that they decided they were going to do with their time. Parties were common, every birthday got its own celebration that she was no longer being excluded from (it turned out they’d wait until after she was gone to start the festivities), and she quickly found herself constantly asking Jeralt to let her stay later several days a week so that she could soak in everything that she’d been missing.

It seemed that every time she’d get involved in something new, she’d find herself becoming closer with someone else, typically not someone that she sat with on the regular. Gone were the days where her only real friends at the club were the Deer, plus Mercedes and Bernadetta, because now she could say that just about everyone there was her friend to some degree. She could slide up a chair to the Lion table and get wrapped up in a conversation about athletics with Sylvain, Felix, and Ingrid, only to get turned to talking about cooking with Ashe, Dedue, and Annette, and then Mercedes would call her attention away, or Dimitri would come in with his own topic and they’d get started on that. Or she could go over to the Eagles and talk about writing with Bernadetta, or music with Dorothea, or about the school itself with just about anyone else there.

The only real exception to the conversation rule was Hubert, who never seemed interested in speaking with her no matter who else was talking, and whenever she’d go back to her own table she could see him beginning to talk quietly to Edelgard about something or other. “I don’t think he likes me,” Byleth said to her friends at the Deer table after rejoining them one afternoon, several months into the club endeavor. “Any ideas about what to do with him?”

“Ignore him, it’d be best for everyone if you pretend he doesn’t exist,” Claude replied, giving a flippant shrug that embodied his attitude on the matter. “He’s not anyone’s favorite except Edelgard’s, and no one’s quite sure what she sees in him.”

“I’ll try to keep that in mind next time I’m over there.” She could see that everyone else was in agreement with Claude, which didn’t give her any answers about why he didn’t like her in the first place, but at least problems with him weren’t just something she experienced. But like always, her attention went right back to staring at Claude, watching him relax and go back to his usual carefree self. “So, uh, what’s the plan for today?” she asked him, wanting to know if he had any ideas or if it was time to start doing her own thing again.

“Ooh, ooh, I have something we could do!” Hilda announced, with more energy than she usually ever used to speak to the group. “I was kind of thinking that maybe we could start planning for the club dance that’s coming up, you know, because it’s our turn to run it this year? It has to be nothing short of the best.”

“There’s a dance?” Byleth asked, at the same time that Claude muttered something about wishing he could forget that they had that responsibility. She looked at him, now knowing that Hilda was telling the truth, but eventually turned to the girl who seemed to be bursting at the seams with ideas to share. "Why haven’t I heard about this before now? Since when is there a dance?”

“At the end of the year, there’s a dance that the whole academy attends, but we have our own here the day before because the rules at the ‘official’ one are always too stuffy.” Crinkling her nose, Hilda looked like she had just smelled something nasty, before bursting into laughter. “And every year, the group that gets to plan our dance changes, and this year it’s all in the hands of the Golden Deer! We get to plan the theme, the decorations, the chaperones…it’ll be amazing!”

“It may ultimately not be quite as lavish as if the other groups were in charge, due to not everyone in the Deer hailing from a family of wealth, but we will still make it better than anything this club has seen before.” Lorenz crossed his arms over his chest and gave a solid nod, which had him looking over at Byleth’s side of the table, an obvious slight at those she was sitting between. Already she could see Ignatz growing fidgety at the topic of paying for a dance, and Leonie was clearly hung up on something that had been said previously, but Byleth didn’t know what there was she could do in that moment. Telling Lorenz off for acting as he was didn’t seem like it was her place, and she didn’t have any interest in starting drama that day.

Thankfully, there was someone else ready and willing to step in, and based on how he looked exasperated when he slammed his hands down on the table Claude was clearly meaning business. “It’s still too early to start planning anything, if we start now everyone else’ll have too high of expectations for whatever disaster we cause that night. Let’s give it a few weeks, maybe a month or two, and then we can get into the details.”

“Can we at least discuss potential chaperones?” Hilda was not budging from her idea of talking about the dance, and after a quick battle of yes and no with Claude she emerged victorious, with his reluctant permission to talk about that one aspect. “Oh, I knew you’d come around. So me and Marianne have already talked about this a bit and we’ve got a shortlist of people we’d want to ask to do the job.”

“W-we do?” Marianne asked, surprised to hear her name get brought into the mix. “I thought we only talked about Father wanting to be a chaperone…”

“Yeah, so obviously he’s on the shortlist.” Holding up three fingers on one hand, Hilda pointed to each one as she said a name. “Mister Edmund, that’s the first, then my big brother Holst because he owes me big-time, and then last we have his friend Balthus, who is definitely down for a good time if you’ll let him be.”

“Can we add a name to that list?” Because it was Leonie asking the question, it was almost too apparent who she’d say, but Hilda indulged her anyway by giving her the opportunity. “I know he’ll probably have to be at the dance the next night, but having Jeralt here would be a good idea. Especially since his daughter will be here.”

Hilda toyed with lifting a fourth finger, before turning to Byleth for her opinion. “Well, he’s your dad, isn’t he? Do you want to say yes or no to us asking him to be a chaperone?”

While Leonie’s logic for asking was completely sound, and would give him something to do that night if Byleth herself was expected to attend the dance, she wasn’t quite sure how her father would handle being in a situation such as that. He’d never once struck her as the kind of guy to have fun at a large gathering, knowing that his idea of a good time was a few drinks and throwing some fishing lines, but she couldn’t see there being any harm in at least asking. “I would be fine with it,” she said, watching Leonie pump her fist a few times out of the corner of her eye, while Hilda finally lifted the fourth finger. “He may say no, though, so don’t get your hopes up.”

“As long as there’s a chance, that’s what I’m looking forward to!” Overjoyed with the fact that she hadn’t been completely shot down, Leonie thanked them both for letting her speak before going back to sitting as usual.

Her mouth hanging slightly open as she thought about what else could be said, Hilda looked at her four raised fingers before looking at everyone else at the table. “Well, I guess if I let one person get to make a suggestion I should let the rest of you do it as well. Anyone else have someone they’re dying to have as a chaperone at the dance, or are you all going to let me make the call there?”

“Not anyone who’ll be at the one the next day, other than Jeralt, that’s my request,” Claude said with a shudder. “Don’t know if I could stomach two nights in a row with, say, Seteth. Just throwing a random name out there.” Everyone knew that he wasn’t being random with that choice, as he was glancing over to where Flayn was sitting with the Eagles, having become a member of theirs that was just as loyal as any of the others. “But that’s all I have to say on the matter, now can we move on?”

“Yeah, yeah, we can move on. What are your grand plans for today, since mine aren’t quite good enough for you?” Hilda’s fingers curled back to closed and it seemed that she was moving past the dance she felt so passionately about, and for the next several weeks not another word was said about it, amongst all of the hectic daily things going on in the club. There were, after all, birthdays to celebrate and other various events to be focused on, and Byleth wasn’t going to dwell on not hearing about something that seemed to be far in the future. If the dance thing wasn’t going to happen at all, she wasn’t going to be upset about it by any means.

The next time it was brought up was on a rainy day later in the year, when the Eagles and the Lions were (for the most part) off at their classes and the Deer were all available to be hanging around the club building. It came in the form of Lysithea dropping a flyer down on the table for everyone to see, her angrily pointing at one piece of information on it. “This is simply ridiculous! Why are they making the all-school ball have an age minimum?” she asked, her finger jabbing into the words _sixteen years of age or older for admission_. “Is this some sort of joke?”

“It’s probably to keep people from going into town and asking random teenagers to come to the ball with them,” Ignatz replied, having stood to get a better look at the full flier. “That has to be the reason, right?”

“Whatever it is, it means I can’t attend!” Her fury was causing her to raise her voice, which had everyone’s attention more than her pointing had. “I feel like this is discrimination against me and me alone, as the youngest student currently attending Garreg Mach!”

In a singsong voice, Hilda reminded her, “Then it’s a good thing our dance is for all ages, as long as you’re a member of the Three Houses Club. You don’t have to worry about attending the ball and just focus entirely on coming here to hang out with us. Which you have to.”

“I suppose that is true,” Lysithea said, retracting her finger but leaving the flyer where she’d dropped it, so that everyone else could continue to read it. “But now that this information’s out and nothing about our dance is, do you really think anyone here will be interested in attending after all?”

“Uh, is water wet? Everyone here knows that being at our dance is more important than being at the one everyone else gets to go to, it’s part of the status that comes with being a member. And now that they’ve released their information…” Hilda’s eyes flickered towards Claude, who was reading the flyer with a blank expression. “Permission to start planning this like I’ve wanted to for months now?”

“I assume you’re talking to me, and to that I say, why wait for my permission? You have just as much say in what happens here as the rest of us, myself included, you just do your own thing and it’ll all work out.” Claude’s tone felt dismissive, like what was being discussed didn’t actually matter to him in the slightest, but Hilda wasn’t bothered by that aspect. She shrieked, a girlish squeal that had everyone who wasn’t there at the table (which was just Mercedes and Flayn, both doing their own thing together) looking over to see what was going on.

With determination prominent in her mind and in her heart, Hilda took that permission-granting to start listing off everything she’d thought of that they needed to take care of, with Marianne occasionally being prompted to say something that was poorly explained or even left out. While they were going on with their business, enthralling everyone else at the table, Byleth found herself drawn to watching how Claude was not paying any attention at all to what his friends were saying. He seemed incredibly detached from the conversation, like his dismissing way of giving permission was indicative of how he actually felt about things, and it made Byleth quite curious as to what the cause might’ve been.

Before she had a chance to point out that something was amiss, Lorenz was bringing up a point of his own that he seemed surprised had been left out of the discussion thus far. “I haven’t heard you mention bringing a date to the dance, and it not being the date you’ll be attending the ball with,” he said, Hilda covering her mouth as she gasped upon hearing it. “I assume that is the way we will be running this, as it has been in years past.”

“Oh definitely, if you come with a _date_ you can’t pick the same person both nights, but coming with a group of friends? You can do that, we won’t judge you if you have to come by yourself and meet up with people once you’re here.” She winked at Lorenz, who gave her a disgusted look in response, causing her to dissolve into giggles that just about everyone else at the table fell victim to, minus Byleth and Claude. One of those made sense, given that laughter was not something she did, but the other one felt like it had to have been a mistake.

Something was bothering him, and Byleth was not going to let it go unnoticed. “I want to take a walk around the building real quick,” she blurted out over the giggling, causing it to abruptly stop as everyone’s focus went to her and her flustered face as she added, “Claude, you come with me. I need someone to walk with.”

“Sure thing,” he replied without any enthusiasm, and the two of them rose from their chairs and headed towards the door, the rest of the Deer picking their conversation up right where it had been left before the laughter interruption. Once they were outside, and away from any ears that might’ve been listening to them, he turned to Byleth with an almost angered expression. “What do you want from me right now? Can’t a guy have a moment where he doesn’t want to be a part of the fun and games?”

“He can, and that’s why we’re outside. I said I need someone to walk with, not someone to talk to.” Adjusting her hair so that it was all hanging behind her shoulders and therefore not as liable to being blown in her face, Byleth began walking, not checking to see if Claude was with her until she was at the corner of the building, only to turn around and find him still back near the door. “Come on, you need the fresh air.”

“There’s no reason to treat me like a child,” he grumbled, jogging to catch up to her, and as they walked he tried to stay next to her as much as possible, until they were around the backside of the building, near the trash door for the kitchen. It was at that point that he stopped and asked her to do the same, which she obliged to do eagerly. “It’s just…talking about the dance and the rules isn’t my thing. I’m not interested in being there, but it’s our year and Hilda would have my head if I decided I wasn’t going to show up.”

Byleth nodded, knowing that he wasn’t being too terribly hyperbolic with that statement. “I get it, but can’t you go to it with her and Lorenz and have a good time? The three of you are close, it only makes sense.” To illustrate her point, she raised a hand and wrapped three fingers over each other, a motion that he chuckled at.

“Nah, see, the way it works is this. Hilda and me? Great friends. Lorenz and me? Eh, he’s a prick but we’ve got each other’s backs. Hilda and Lorenz? Best buds, nothing’ll ever split them up. The three of us together?” He shook his head. “Nothing doing there. It’s them and me, and they’ll come to both dances with Marianne so that they’re able to be together, following their own rules.”

“I see,” Byleth said after letting her fingers separate, shaking them out for a moment. “I guess then your option is to come with other friends? I’m sure Lysithea, Leonie, Raphael, and Ignatz would appreciate you coming with them.”

Again Claude had to point out the flaw in her logic. “Lysithea’s most likely going to be showing up with Edelgard and Hubert, you know as well as I do that Leonie wants to be there with your dad and no one else, but because she can’t have that she’ll be coming with Raphael and Ignatz so that they can all have a good time. I’m not even half as close with them as I am with the others, so me inviting myself into their group? Not happening.”

“Someone from another house, then?”

“Like who, Byleth? There’s not a person in this club who’d pick me over someone else, except…” There was something else he said, but he began mumbling and she couldn’t make it out, although based on how his cheeks had darkened she wasn’t sure she wanted to hear it. She hadn’t ever been involved in hearing out someone’s romantic interests before, and she didn’t want her first time to take place behind a building on a private school’s campus. At any rate, he didn’t seem to want her to hear it, as he sighed and said, “I’ll figure something out. Maybe Mercedes and her crew will need someone else helping on kitchen duty.”

Unable to resist, Byleth motioned towards the back door of the building. “You mean there’s going to be a grand dance here, and you’re going to stick Mercedes in the kitchen? She’ll have more fun out here than in there.”

“Not in the snow she won’t, and besides, she’ll volunteer to be in there to supervise. It’s kind of her thing, to be the noble guardian who watches over the rest of us, and even still she’ll have a group she comes with.” Sighing again, Claude stepped over to the wall and leaned against it, looking at Byleth with a focus in his eyes she hadn’t seen him with before. “But enough about her, and enough about my problems as well. What are your plans for the dance, since as a Deer you’re technically obligated to be there too.”

“Helping Mercedes, since I’m a guardian of the club as well.” The answer came quickly to Byleth, as she had no interest in anything remotely close to dances and social gatherings of that kind. Claude didn’t seem to be impressed with that answer, but she knew that there wasn’t much on the topic that was impressing him at the moment. “I can’t say I’m very good at cooking, but perhaps she’ll have me refill drinks. I’ve done that many times for Father when he’s been drinking at home.”

Claude’s mouth opened for a second, his tongue flickering behind his teeth as if he was going over words he wanted to say, but he closed it before a single sound came out. His eyes shut as well, and he took a few moments before giving a single, breath-heavy laugh, opening his eyes once more to meet Byleth’s as she was watching him go through all the motions. “I think there’s a better place you could be that night,” he told her, having to break the eye contact almost immediately. “It’s just too bad that you wouldn’t want to be there.”

“There’s somewhere else I could be?” Byleth knew that there was, she could just as easily be someone who went with friends and be a part of the festivities as anyone else, but she knew that she didn’t want to do that. “I think I’ll stick with helping with the food and drinks.”

He laughed again, this time letting it carry him to doubling over, putting his hands on his thighs to steady himself as the waves crashed through his body. She was left staring at him, not sure what he found so hilarious, until he’d collected himself enough to stand back up, lock eyes with her, and say, “Byleth, I’m saying there’s somewhere better you could be, because I want you to be there with _me_.”

Time seemed to freeze as his words hit her ears, seeing the serious, almost desperate look he was giving her as he said them. It certainly made sense that he was upset about the idea of the dance if he was speaking the truth, given how many times he’d been teased about his age in relation to everyone else’s (not just hers). She could only imagine the ridiculing lines he’d thought of when considering asking her to go with him, if what she’d heard others already say about their friendship was any indication. “That would…certainly be somewhere better than making a fool of myself in the kitchen,” she mumbled, mostly to herself because she wasn’t sure if him knowing she felt that way would be better or worse for his situation.

“Yeah, go on, make fun of me for thinking you’d ever want to. Just another instance of ‘that Riegan kid’ hoping for things greater than what he deserves.” Hearing the pain in Claude’s voice made Byleth wish she knew what the right thing to do was in that moment, but she was only faced with options that felt like they’d hurt just as much. “I’ll go back inside, figure something out for how I’ll go without going by myself, and you can do kitchen duty, and we’ll all be—”

“Claude, I’ll go with you.” That shut him up instantly, and it surprised Byleth to hear herself say it. “I’m not interested in going to the ball, which I’d need to be asked to because I’m not a student, so going to the dance here with you? I’ll do it.”

“—you’re kidding, right?” There was a smile trying to form on Claude’s lips, one that fully erupted when Byleth shook her head and insisted she was being genuine. “Geez, way to make me think you wouldn’t be interested in doing that for me! I didn’t take you as much of a partygoer, and I definitely didn’t think you’d accept my offer. How do you think everyone else is gonna take this?”

She thought about Hilda and Lorenz and the others, and how what they said to their faces was likely different than what was being said where they couldn’t hear them. “I don’t want them to know until that night. Keep them guessing.”

“Tricky, I like it! We can both pretend like we’ve got other plans, then hit them with the truth when the night comes, it’ll be the talk of the club for weeks!” Clasping his hands together, Claude’s entire aura had changed from the upset one he’d had before to something much more upbeat and like his usual self. “Let’s go back inside and act like nothing happened other than the walk you asked for, then we can…I don’t know, talk about this some other time? You’ve got a computer, you’re bound to have some messenger on there.”

Keeping as straight of a face as she could, Byleth broke some news to him that shouldn’t have come as too much of a surprise. “Actually, I don’t. But I do have a phone that you can text me on, so we can go that route.” The walk back around the building was them exchanging numbers, Claude resisting making fun of Byleth’s flip-phone she was still using in a modern age, and assuring each other that what they’d decided was going to stay just between them until the night of the dance, no exceptions.

It turned out that there was one exception to their pact, but it wasn’t something that either of them had considered was a possibility until it was staring them in their faces. Two days before the dance, as the three distinct groups of young adults were working on decorating and beginning to set up for what was coming rather quickly, Claude came into the club building after having stepped outside to take a phone call, looking like he was about to lose his mind on someone. Rather than resuming hanging the streamers he’d been working on when his phone had started ringing, he sat down in his normal seat at the table and started drumming his fingers along the edge, progressively getting louder until someone stopped what they were doing to see what was going on.

Unfortunately for him, that person was Hilda, and with the power she’d given herself by actually wanting to be responsible for the whole dance, she was not too pleased to see someone not doing their share. “Excuse me, aren’t you supposed to be decorating?” she asked, her voice sugar-coated with a fake sweetness that everyone who could hear it picked up immediately. “I’m doing real work for a change, doesn’t mean you get to be lazy instead!”

“I’ll get back to it in a moment, just let me sit here and work through some things.” He stopped the drumming, but based on how he was talking loudly enough to get almost everyone’s attention in the general area, he was looking for someone in specific to pay attention to him. Knowing that she was that certain person, Byleth weighed the options of stopping what she was doing (she was hanging tissue paper flowers that she’d made with Marianne’s help) over continuing working.

“Work through some things?” Hilda repeated, their conversation going on despite Claude’s obvious attempt at getting backup. “Like what? Who you’re going to try to ask to go with you last-minute? I don’t think you’re going to find anyone at this point.”

Another blow to the idea of involving herself, because Byleth didn’t want to spoil the secret they’d worked so hard to maintain. Lucky for her, a distraction came in the way of Lorenz entering their conversation, having heard what Hilda said and wanting to get his own piece in. “Yes, even though many find you quite charming, you cannot charm your way into coming with anyone at this point. We all have our plans set in stone, isn’t that right?”

“Um, actually, about that.” Four words, spoken in the still-loud volume that was attracting everyone’s attention, and Hilda now had a captive audience curious to know why she wasn’t going along with what Lorenz, her apparent best friend was saying. “I know we’d planned on going as a fearsome threesome with Marianne, but, uh…”

“Father refuses to let me go ‘with’ anyone that isn’t approved by him,” Marianne said, having gotten up from where she was still folding paper flowers to get closer to the action. “That meant not going with either of you, sadly.”

Lorenz looked at Marianne and, after judging her from head to toe, nodded. “I suppose that cannot be helped, your father is not the kind of man we want to cross. But that changes nothing about us—“ he looked back at Hilda, who was grimacing as she knew what she was about to do, “—and I fail to understand why you are making us going together into this big of a deal right now.”

“Because we’re not going together, Lorenz, that’s why.” Cue the loud sputtering coming from Lorenz as he had to accept the rejection right there, demanding to know why she would say such a thing to him. “I had someone else ask me to go with them, and because I knew Marianne wasn’t going to be with us and we’re going to be going together to the ball, I humored him and said I’d go. Is that a problem?”

“It is _two days_ before the dance and you are just now letting me know I am without a date? That is certainly a problem!” The rejection was not sitting well with Lorenz, and he knew as well as anyone else that just about everyone was watching how he handled things, so he did what any self-respecting man would do and looked right at Claude. “You seem to not have a date to the dance either, as far as I have heard. Would you mind doing a friend a favor and attending with me?”

Claude raised two fingers. “One, have a date already, so no. Two, have to turn that date down because I’ve got somewhere more important to be in, oh, twelve hours from now.”

Three distinct statements were made simultaneously at Claude’s two points. Hilda’s loud “You’re not going to be at the dance?” was competing with Lorenz’s “You have a date?” for the ears of everyone, but those closest to her heard Byleth’s confused “You’re going to have to turn me down?”  
Even the two who’d also said something heard what had come out of Byleth’s mouth, rendering them temporarily speechless and allowing for Claude to explain himself. “Yeah, sorry about that. Just got a call that my grandpa’s not doing too hot and I’ve gotta get home to see him in case anything happens.”

“I understand, I’d put family first before anything like a dance,” Byleth replied, feeling a panging in her chest that she hadn’t been expecting. Was she genuinely hurt that she wasn’t going to get to go to the dance with Claude like they’d been planning? “There’s always next year for us to go together.”

“I can’t believe this,” Hilda said, shaking her head at the disappointing turn of events. “You’re the face of the Golden Deer and you’re not even going to be at the dance? Can’t this wait until the day after? It doesn’t sound like he’s in that bad of shape if you just found this out now.”

“Not happening, I’m getting out there as fast as I can, not playing around and missing anything here. I’m all my grandpa’s got in life, his pride and joy, I’m not going to not be there for him when he needs me.” Claude shot a look over to where Byleth was standing, her holding a paper flower up against the wall but having completely forgotten to tape it there. “I have to put family first, there’s next year, exactly what you already said.”

Clearing his throat, Lorenz was not about to let the conversation leave him and the way he’d been personally wronged behind. “Ignoring that you had a date and now no longer do, and that you kept that secret from us for some amount of time, I am still dateless and still in need of having someone to attend the dance with since my dearest friend has chosen to betray me. Since she cannot attend with you, Claude, would you give your blessing to allow me to attend with your former date?”

“Nah, I’ll let Byleth decide who she goes with on her own time. I’m gonna head out to pack my bag and get ready to catch the bus back to the Riegan home, you all have an excellent rest of your day and dance and ball and everything else that’s coming up.” At the sound of him standing up, an argument between Hilda and Lorenz began to break out, with Marianne trying to pacify them both as best as she could, and Byleth could only barely look past them for a second to see Claude before he was gone, without a proper farewell to her.

That hit her hard, causing her to drop the flower and have it crumple to the floor, but she couldn’t be bothered to care in that moment about a stupid flower. Her friend, who was going to be her date to a supposedly huge social event, had just walked out because of personal issues, and she didn’t even get to say goodbye. But not all was lost, as she felt her phone vibrate in her pocket, and when she pulled it out she saw that it was a text from Claude telling her that he felt bad to have to abandon her like that but that his grandpa really did mean more to him than the dance ever could. _If I were you, I’d stay out of the kitchen and out of the Hilda-Lorenz drama,_ his second message read, which was followed with a third that said, _I suggest asking the four Lions working on setting up a dancefloor if you can attend with one of them._

Lifting her eyes from the phone screen, Byleth looked around to see who it was he was referring to, and her heart sank when she saw that Sylvain was one of them. Her message back was asking if he was crazy, to which he told her to not ask that one in particular. “Were you really going to go with Claude?” Marianne whispered to her, having come over while she’d been typing out her message. “Or was that him joking to cause problems?”

“I really was,” she replied, tucking her phone away, “but now I’m going to go with someone else. Maybe even four someone elses.”

* * *

Byleth’s guess of going with all four was a bit much, because when she approached the quartet that Claude had told her to talk to, she was immediately told that one of them was not interested in adding someone else to who he was going to be at the dance with. After that rejection was a selfless act from a second to keep the third away from her, which left one person standing, looking at Byleth with an uncertain smile as he considered splitting with his friends to keep her company for just one night. It took some prodding and promising that no one would be upset for him to agree to it, and that was the rather boring way that Byleth ended up attending the dance two nights later with Dimitri.

She couldn’t complain about going with him, in their brief conversations he’d always been nothing but kind to her, and he seemed happy to have someone to go with that wasn’t his usual group of friends. “I believe it was all but assumed I would be coming with them,” he told her during the day of the dance, while the finishing touches were being put on the club building. “And, honestly, I had accepted it as my fate, until you so kindly let us know that Claude wanted us to step in where he couldn’t.”

“Yeah, it’s really nice of you to choose someone you’re not friends with over them, especially for someone outside of your house,” Byleth replied, looking around at the completely transformed room. She knew that her bag, containing her dress and shoes for the night, was tucked away somewhere, but she didn’t have the slightest of clues as to where that could have been with all of the rearranging that was going on. “I thought Claude might’ve lost his mind suggesting you four, but it worked out.”

“Certainly, Claude knew who he could trust to fill in.” Dimitri rubbed at one of his arms, thinking for a moment about how to word what he wanted to say next. “But let me assure you that us being of different houses means nothing for us attending together. Hasn’t someone told you before that the houses don’t matter outside of these walls?”

“I’ve heard that before, sure, but I don’t believe it. Everyone in the same house usually is gone on the same days at the same time, that’s got to mean something.” Feeling like she’d just pointed out the single most important piece of information to shut down that statement, Byleth found herself looking at Dimitri as he was trying his hardest not to laugh. “What’s so funny about what I said?”

He broke into a smile at her naïve perspective of things. “This may come as a shock to you, but the class schedule is flexible and can be reworked to fit any social commitments a student may have. We all try to align our schedules with each other within our house, but I could easily change my classes to match those of anyone in the Eagles or Deer if I wanted. Doing it the way we do just allows us to see more of each other.”

“So you’re not completely cut off from people in other houses?” she asked, what he was saying making sense but her wanting to know more, and when he nodded she pursed her lips together, looking around for wherever Hilda was. “That might explain some things, now that I know that.”

“Yes, well, I will admit I am not quite as familiar with members of the other houses as I’d like, but that could very easily change in the future. That change is starting tonight with you, after all.” Even though he was merely explaining one of the elements of the academy’s education system to her, Dimitri seemed to have a level head on his shoulders and Byleth found herself wondering what it would have been like to stick with the Lions when she’d initially joined, to get to know him better from the start. He could tell she was thinking about something, even as she wasn’t looking at him, and he decided then would be best to take his leave, reminding her he’d meet her outside the club building right before the dance began to bring her inside.

If she were planning on going home to get ready, that would have posed a problem, as she wouldn’t have had the time between Jeralt picking her up and the arranged meeting time to get anything except maybe a snack at home. That was why she had her dress around somewhere, so that she could hang out there at the club building and get ready somewhere that was mere steps from where she was supposed to meet her date. It was a plan she’d run by Hilda the day before, to an approving nod, and she expected that she’d be the lone person still inside for some time before the dance began.

There was a giant flaw in that expectation, though, and the discovery of it came once just about everyone else had left to go back to their dorm rooms (or, in a couple of cases, picked up by the chaperones that would be spending the night there with them). “Oh, you’re not going anywhere to get ready?” Byleth heard Mercedes ask from the doorway into the kitchen, and she turned, holding her dress bag, to see the blonde woman standing with her arm leaning against the doorframe. “I would have figured someone with a proper date would want to take her time to get dolled up. Do you need somewhere to get ready? I can call Annette to see if you can head to her room to change.”

“I was planning on just using the bathroom here, I’m afraid I’m not going to get too fancy with my clothing,” she admitted, swinging the bag at her side. “What about you? Aren’t you going to get ready somewhere?”

“I’ll be doing that in due time, I need my outfit to get here before I can get into it.” Laughing, Mercedes noticed Byleth’s eyes shifting from side to side and she elaborated, “In my hurry to get over here this morning I forgot all about grabbing my dress, so Ingrid volunteered to get it from my room, then to give it to Dedue so he could give it to Ashe so that he could bring it for me. Quite the complicated chain of events, I know, but it’s what will work.”

“Well, whenever you want to get ready, we could do it together.” Byleth honestly didn’t have the first clue of what she was going to do to make herself look nice for the occasion, other than put the dress and flat shoes on and maybe brush out her hair if she’d remembered to pack a brush. She wasn’t sure Mercedes would have much more of a clue, but anything was better than nothing at that point.

Her general cluelessness to things was apparent, but Mercedes looked past it with a smile, motioning for Byleth to come into the kitchen. “Since you’re here, and since we aren’t getting ready quite yet, maybe you can come help me arrange some of the dishes we’ll be using later. Hilda gave me specific directions for how she wants things, but they’re rather complicated for one person to get all of them taken care of in the time I have.”

“That makes sense,” she replied, stepping inside the kitchen to see a variety of platters, cups, plates, and bowls laying around, no order to any of them. As she looked around, feeling herself being overcome with instant regret, Mercedes approached one of the tables that was bare beyond a tablecloth and gave a grand gesture to it, explaining that one of the directions she’d been given was to turn it into the drink table. “Why can’t the drink stuff stay where it is?” Byleth asked, fully understanding now why Mercedes had said the job was complicated. “I think it’s fine there.”

“Because that’s where Hilda wants the desserts to go, and Annette and I have been working hard on some of the desserts so we agree that they need to have their own table.” Mercedes turned away from the empty table to see Byleth eyeing the stacks of cups with disdain. “Yes, those are what I’d like you to move and arrange by color, so that when we set out the drinks everyone can find a cup they’d like without too much hassle. While you work on that, I’ll start putting the dishes for the main course in the order we’ve been asked to do so, so that when those are ready they’ll have a home.”

“This seems like a lot of work for such a small event.” Mercedes nodded in full agreement, but only repeated her request so that Byleth knew she meant business. Together they were able to get things organized decently quickly, although Byleth felt bad every time she’d turn to see Mercedes having done twice as much work as she had, but the cups were so tightly stacked that separating them was quite difficult. She’d thrown a few of them on accident, sending them clattering to the floor, and it was during one of the times when she was crawling under the table to collect what she’d dropped that she heard a gentle knock against the doorframe.

“I’m not interrupting anything, am I?” Ashe timidly asked, noticing first Mercedes admiring her organization work before seeing Byleth’s legs sticking out from under the tablecloth on the drink table. “I didn’t know it was going to be more than you here, Mercedes.”

“I didn’t know either, until Byleth stayed behind. You aren’t interrupting anything, don’t worry.” When Byleth got out from under the table she saw Mercedes at Ashe’s side, taking a bag from him and peering into it with a smile. “Thank you so much for getting this for me! The kitchen is fully yours to use now, I’ll be back to help you once I’ve gotten ready.”

Approaching the two after having chose to set the remaining cups on the side of the table, Byleth saw that Ashe was wearing a rather neat-looking suit jacket, way too big for his small frame but still dapper. The fear began to manifest in her mind that she wasn’t going to be dressed up enough for the occasion, compared to what he was wearing, but he didn’t seem to be comfortable in what he was wearing, as he was already fiddling with the buttons holding it closed. Underneath was a plain white dress shirt, which also seemed to be the wrong size for him, but after he’d taken off the jacket he seemed to be a bit more confident in his appearance. “I can’t wait to see how you both look,” he told them, setting his jacket on an empty countertop before dashing off to start cooking something.

“What a sweet boy,” Mercedes said to Byleth, who gave it a moment before agreeing. “Let’s get ready quickly, so I don’t leave him to do all of the cooking for the meals. It could be some time before he has any help other than myself, after all.”

They headed to the club building’s bathroom, which had been scrubbed clean and decorated for the occasion, and upon entering Mercedes locked the door so that no one could stumble inside on them while they readied themselves. “I think that might be overkill,” Byleth told her, figuring that the only person there aside from them would never intrude on them while changing, “but I get the idea. What if someone else shows up, right?”

“I wouldn’t expect him to be here early, but if Sylvain comes in he could be tempted to sneak a peek at us.” Laughing, Mercedes fully opened her bag and pulled out her dress, which seemed to be long and modest, much like everything else she wore. “I’ve worn this every year for the Three Houses Club’s dance, and when I finally stop attending I’ll retire it. That’s not today, though, so it lives to see another festive night.”

“My dress is new, Father and I went shopping the other day and he said it looked good for the occasion.” Never mind the fact that Byleth had bought it comparing it to what she’d been told Claude was going to be wearing, but now that she wasn’t going to be there with him she wasn’t sure how well it would work out. Mercedes seemed to be curious about what it looked like, so she got it out of her own bag and held it up, the bottom hem of the dress resting mid-thigh over her pants. “Do you think it’ll be fine?”

Enthusiastically nodding, Mercedes dropped her own dress back into its bag and rushed to take the black-sequined dress out of Byleth’s hands, admiring it for herself. “I wouldn’t personally wear it, the texture of the fabric isn’t something I’m fond of, but you will look like a movie star walking out into the room wearing this! Come, let’s get you in it, yours will take a bit more preparation than my own will!”

When Byleth had suggested them getting ready together, she’d assumed it meant they’d be getting dressed simultaneously in the bathroom, not Mercedes helping her get into her dress and making sure that it was fitting properly everywhere. The attention to detail that Mercedes put into someone else’s appearance was astounding, to the point that she brought her bag over and was pulling out stitch kits and pins to give Byleth’s dress the best fit it could possibly have. “You’re really playing into that movie star comment, aren’t you?”

“I certainly am! Here, let me do your hair once I—ouch!—get this pin in properly.” Mercedes brought her finger to her mouth to briefly suck on it after having stabbed it with a safety pin, but that was the only mishap that happened during her dressing assistance. Once she felt satisfied with her work, she handed Byleth her hairbrush and fine-toothed comb and told her to start working on her hair, while she got herself dressed; figuring it would be a few minutes, Byleth spent the time staring at her own reflection and how the dress she was wearing was not something she’d usually wear, but something she looked good in, only for Mercedes to pop up almost instantly in her much more modest outfit. “I know, you’re quite breathtaking, but we need to get started on your hair. Do you want it pulled to the side, half-up, all the way up, in a braid, what do you think you’d be best with?”

Having never really done much more than wear her hair loose and tangled, Byleth managed to throw out an answer after realizing she didn’t know what would look best on her. “Half-up could work,” she decided, and Mercedes took her brush into hand to make it happen. There was a lot of tugging, a lot of ripping through knots that Byleth hadn’t known she had, and quite a bit of being in awe at how thick her hair was, but the desire hairstyle was achieved in time, Mercedes setting all of her tools minus her comb aside so that she could begin working on tidying up her own hair. That was when Byleth got to look at herself again without anything distracting or pulling on her, and she almost didn’t recognize herself. “If I was wearing makeup I’d really not know who I am anymore,” she said, playing with her bangs as they’d been left untouched. “You’re not planning on doing that, are you?”

“Goddess no, some of the other ladies may come in wearing heavy makeup, but it’s too hot in there once all of the chaperones arrive and the dancing starts, it’d melt right off of your face.” Running her comb through her hair to make it silky smooth before she began twisting and pinning it as it usually was, Mercedes was watching how Byleth was fiddling with her bangs from the corner of her eye. “I don’t think there’s much I can do with those, they’re too short to be pulled back.”

“It’s okay, they’re fine like they are. They’re the only way that Dimitri may know who I am when he sees me.” She knew that wasn’t true, and that her transformation wasn’t anywhere close to that dramatic, but she was still wary that her date for the night wouldn’t be receptive to her appearance. She’d picked out the dress under the impression she’d be attending with someone else, she wasn’t sure how well he’d like knowing that she was making zero effort to match with him instead. He’d have to be at least somewhat understanding given the short amount of time they’d known they’d be going together.

After Mercedes finished fixing her hair and put everything back into her bag, Byleth switched into her dress shoes and the two of them left the bathroom to the building being just as empty as it had been before. They took their things with them back into the kitchen, where Ashe was setting up what looked like pots and pans for several different dishes to be cooked at once, the scent of whatever he’d already been cooking heavy in the air. “You can just leave your things back here with mine, I’ll watch over them for you,” Mercedes said, offering a hand to take Byleth’s bag and smiling once it was in her possession. “You go out and wait for everyone to start arriving, we’ll handle things in here.”

“Sounds like a plan,” she replied, heading right back out into the main room of the building and taking a seat in one of the chairs that had been moved to against the wall. It felt so lonely to be in there by herself with none of the furniture in its normal places, but she knew that people would be coming soon enough; unfortunately it wasn’t quite as fast as she would have appreciated, because she started to doze off sitting there waiting. Her wake-up call came in the form of Hilda bustling into the building, shouting out orders and plans to someone that Byleth didn’t initially see when her eyes snapped back open.

Instead of it just being Hilda in there with her, there was some completely unfamiliar dark-haired man who physically took up more space than just about anyone else who ever entered their building (Raphael excluded). He seemed to notice Byleth sitting in her chair and loudly coughed, trying to get Hilda’s attention, but when that didn’t work he used words instead. “Didn’t you say no one should be here yet? ‘Cause there’s someone right over there.”

“What, there shouldn’t be…” Stopping in her tracks to look around the room for whoever he was referring to, Hilda saw Byleth and scrunched her face in thought, before shaking it off and flouncing over to her the best she could in her strappy heels. “Oh, hi Byleth! Wasn’t expecting to see you here until later, what’re you doing here now?”

“Never left. Who’s the guy? Is he your date?” Byleth wasn’t expecting her questions to be met with laughter, but that was exactly what happened, and she was left confused until Hilda was able to collect herself and explain.

“No way, he’s too old to be my date! This is my brother’s old friend Balthus, he’s here to chaperone for all of us because Holst ‘got sick’ this morning and couldn’t make it. Isn’t that right, Baltie?” The man nodded and Hilda smiled, putting a finger to her cheek as she did. “I told him we’d come by early so that he could pick wherever he wants to be in charge of before everyone else shows up, but I might’ve said no one would be here right now.”

The sound of something being dropped in the kitchen caught all of their attention, with Balthus jumping to check for an intruder, only to come back with an even deeper look of confusion than he’d had when he’d first seen Byleth. “For no one bein’ here, there sure are a lot of people here. Two of ‘em in the kitchen, but they seem nice enough.”

“Geez, yeah, I should’ve known Mercedes would already be here, but who else?” Before she could go check Byleth told her it was Ashe, and knowing that made Hilda playfully wipe her brow. “Ooh, that’s great! He loves helping cooking, but usually it’s Dedue he’s helping out. Wonder where _he_ is. Probably helping Dimitri, now that I think about it.”

“Wherever he is, I’m sure he’ll be here soon if there’s as much to get ready in the kitchen as Mercedes made it seem.” Standing from her chair and already wishing she was wearing her more comfortable sneakers compared to the flats she had on, Byleth stretched just long enough to notice that Balthus had his eyes fixated on her, and she immediately dropped her arms to tug her dress down as far as it could go, watching him look elsewhere. As strange of a sensation as it was to have someone looking at her in case her dress rode up too far—which it hadn’t, and wasn’t going to as long as she was careful—she would rather not have gone through it again, so she started to walk towards the door, figuring she could just wait outside for whenever more people started to show up.

She was greeted at the doorway by snowflakes lightly falling from the overcast sky, a stiff breeze blowing by and catching her legs unaware, sending shivers from head to toe. “You might wanna hang out in here,” Hilda said to her, having known what the weather outside was like from having just come in not too long before. “It’s only going to get colder, I really hope everyone who’s planning on walking from the dorms has a backup plan.”

“Yeah, good thing you were able to ride over here with me!” Throwing one of his hands into the other, Balthus seemed to be rather thrilled to be a part of things, even though nothing had started yet, and despite her reservations Byleth went back to being closer to where he and Hilda were. As much as she didn’t want to get in their way with whatever it was they’d intended on doing, she didn’t want to risk falling asleep a second time if she sat down, and so she walked around the room with them, getting to listen in on what they were talking about.

That only stopped when more people showed up, but they weren’t quite people that she was expecting to see that night, even though the whole chaperone situation was one she was familiar with. “Why, Byleth, you look simply stunning tonight! Whoever is lucky enough to be your date for this event needs to thank the goddess for being blessed with your presence!” Alois loudly announced when he laid eyes on her, making her cringe from the praise before accepting it with a nod. “I would want to believe that whoever you’ll be here with tonight is someone of good character?”

“From what gossip I have heard, she is going to be the date of Dimitri Blaiddyd,” Seteth replied, answering Alois’ inquiry before Byleth herself had the chance, and she found herself wishing once more that Seteth had nothing to do with any of them, since his presence was solely because Flayn was going to be there. “I wouldn’t hesitate to label him as someone with ‘good character’, so she is in good hands.”

There was the temptation to say that she wasn’t originally going to be there with Dimitri, but she knew that mentioning that she would’ve been there as Claude’s date would have caused nothing but problems. “I’ll let him know that you think highly of him,” she said to Seteth, before turning to Alois. “As for you, I’ll let him know you think he’s lucky to be here with me.”

“That’s the kind of pride I’d expect to find in Jeralt’s daughter!” Alois flashed her a smile and Seteth looked like he wanted out of the conversation, but thankfully Hilda noticed she had two more chaperones present and came to collect them, getting them out of Byleth’s hair before anything else could be said. She barely had time to breathe before Flayn was in front of her, asking if she could tag along with her until her friends arrived, which was a request that was easily filled, especially when the next people to walk through the door seemed to be the very people Flayn was waiting for.

“I should’ve known from the start you’d be a stunner when you attended this dance,” Dorothea told Byleth, waving a hand at her flashy dress before gesturing to her own, which was a similar style but floor-length and a deep red in color. “We should’ve gone shopping together, we would have had quite the time, wouldn’t we?”

“Shopping for your clothes for tonight’s in the past,” Linhardt pointed out with a tired voice, while Flayn was linking arms with him on one side. “I told you that you should have asked someone else if they’d go with you instead of me, but did you listen?”

“Lin, I know I should have listened, but you’re right, that’s in the past!” Linking her arm with his free one, Dorothea winked at Byleth before they were moving on into the room, leaving her standing speechless in their wake.

Next into the building was Dedue, who barely even acknowledged that anyone was there as he made a beeline for the kitchen, but he did knock his head back slightly as he passed Byleth’s position, making her turn her eyes to where he was motioning towards. Standing in the doorway, his jacket speckled with twinkling snowflakes that had collected on his walk, was Dimitri, his hair flat and stringy from the water but his face looking rather serene. “Ah, you’re already here,” he said as Byleth approached him. “I was beginning to worry that perhaps you wouldn’t be attending due to the weather, since I know you live in town and not on school grounds.”

“I never left earlier,” she explained, only to realize that her staying didn’t mean anything when Jeralt would have to drive to get her later anyway. “What matters is that I’m here though, isn’t it?”

“Certainly. You look…rather put together. Are occasions such as this something you’re naturally prepared for, or was this a lot of work?” He seemed to be getting flustered standing next to her, even though he looked to be quite dressed up as well in his fitted blue suit, which went together well enough with her black dress. Unsure of how to answer, she told him what had happened to get her ready and it seemed to be an acceptable enough response, him nodding sagely as he heard it. “Yes, that makes sense, Mercedes does have a way of being helpful exactly as you need her.”

Already their conversation felt like it was hitting a lull, but Byleth didn’t know what else there was that could be said in that moment. She barely knew this guy, he was just doing a favor for her and for someone he’d known longer, and she was already awkward enough when it came to talking to people that she didn’t have any idea of what she could do except go sit somewhere and watch everyone else have a good time. Something hit her as a thing she could do, as she watched Dimitri finally pull his eyes off of her and instead look to see who else was present, but the something in question involved someone quite literally hitting her from behind. “Whoa, sorry there—Byleth? That you?”

“This is why you’ve got to watch where you’re going, Sylvain!” Ingrid sounded angry as she scolded him, even though he was now checking Byleth out from head to toe. “Sorry about that, clearly someone wanted to get inside more than anything else right now. Would’ve been avoided if he’d been watching out, but also if the two of you weren’t standing right in the doorway.”

“I already said I’m sorry, I’d figure that’s enough to get over this. No hard feelings, yeah?” Since he hadn’t really done anything except provide a minor bump, Byleth agreed that there were no hard feelings between them and so Sylvain and Ingrid (and Felix, grumbling about having had to walk in the snow a few steps behind them) headed in to where the others who’d arrived had gathered. That left Byleth and Dimitri there in the doorway, prime to cause more problems if someone else came barreling inside.

Until he suggested they move somewhere a bit more convenient for others, anyway, leading them over to where one of the tables had been pushed for the event. “Have a seat,” he said, drawing her a chair that she took right away, before pulling out his own next to hers. “As bad as it is that you couldn’t come with who you wanted, I hope I can be a decent replacement. Although if we’re being honest, my sense of humor isn’t quite like Claude’s, or anyone else’s, for that matter.”

“It’s a good thing I don’t really laugh then, huh?” she asked in return, knowing this was his attempt at a friendly conversation but not being skilled enough to at least try to make it worth his time. His throaty chuckle was enough to make her feel at peace with her response, but she couldn’t say that she was nearly as comfortable sitting there with him as she would have been if it were Claude sitting across from her, lighting up the room with his bright personality. “We’ll have a good time tonight together, even if it isn’t what we’d been planning for. You gave up being with your friends to do this for me, I can’t ignore that.”

“Yes, well, I’ll be seeing plenty of them at tomorrow night’s ball, they can do without me for one night in their lives.” Dimitri looked out across the room to where Sylvain had walked up to Hilda and was trying to talk to her, while Felix and Ingrid stood behind him keeping a close eye and ear on what he was doing. “They’ll be fine on their own, I promise you.”

“I’ll believe it,” Byleth said after looking over as well and seeing Ingrid grabbing Sylvain to pull him away from Hilda, most likely because he’d crossed some boundary in their conversation. “They seem like a nice group of friends.”

With a hesitant shrug, Dimitri replied, “I’ve known them much longer than any of us have attended Garreg Mach. We all grew up together, more or less. Felix’s father took me in when my parents passed away, and although I moved in with an uncle a while later I could never forget such kindness.”

“Your parents are dead?” The bluntness was unintentional but Byleth didn’t know how else to ask, and when Dimitri nodded she gave a nod as well. “My mother is too, so I understand what it’s like to not have someone around. Father does all he can for me, but I’m sure I missed a lot only having him to raise me since I was a baby. When did…that happen to you, losing your parents?”

“A few years back, I’m sure you heard about it. Quite the mess of a situation, many casualties, all over the news.” Dimitri’s eyes were shifting every which-way, as if he didn’t want them to land anywhere in particular as he was talking. “The tragedy in Duscur, you’re familiar with that, correct?” Byleth was familiar with the name but not the details, but she knew that sitting in a dance wasn’t the right time to have that conversation, so she remained silent instead of giving any sort of answer. Taking that as a sign they needed to move on, Dimitri gave a sigh and stood up, offering a hand for Byleth to take so she could get to her feet. “I’m feeling we should go check on those in the kitchen. Did you know that we have quite the collection of cooks for tonight?”

“So I’ve heard,” she replied, taking his hand and standing up relatively on her own, the two of them barely getting away from the table before they were stuck frozen in place as a group of attendees came into the building. They were watching them cross the room, the quartet that Byleth only knew three-fourths of, and she felt Dimitri’s grasp tighten on her hand. “Who’s that guy with them? The one that isn’t Hubert?” she asked, trying her best to whisper quietly enough to not be heard by anyone else, but loud enough that Dimitri could hear her at the distance they were.

After muttering a few words to himself, Dimitri answered, “That would be Jeritza, he attends classes with the Black Eagles and, by all means, would be one if he ever showed up to the club during normal hours. He’s no one to worry yourself with, not when he’s such close friends with Edelgard and Hubert.”

Not sure if she should heed that warning or if it was being said out of a place of some rivalry she still didn’t fully understand, Byleth cast a glance in their direction right as the group reached where Hilda was standing, just for Edelgard’s voice to fill the room. “I know you wanted us to run all chaperones by you so you could have the final say, but we brought our own with us. No issues there, I assume?”

“Uh, big issue there!” Hilda snapped, her eyes presumably narrowing on Jeritza’s face (something that Byleth could confirm as fact as she and Dimitri finally made it over to the doorway to the kitchen and she could see the confrontation for herself while he called for Dedue to come talk to him). “If I’d wanted him here, I would’ve told you he could come, but I didn’t do that so he’s got to go.”

“He was our ride here, he stays.” Hubert’s voice wasn’t commanding like Edelgard’s was, but it was bone-chilling for anyone to hear when he got serious, and it was a miracle that Hilda didn’t back down at his first word. “He’s not here to cause any harm.”

Baring her teeth for a split second as she considered how to proceed, Hilda’s gaze softened as it left Jeritza’s blank face and fell onto Lysithea’s unamused expression. “I guess if there were any real problems here, you’d tell me, right, Lysithea? I don’t take you as the kind of person to lie to me about that sort of thing.”

Whatever Lysithea said, Byleth couldn’t hear it, not over the sound of Dedue asking her a question about how she was enjoying her evening so far. “It hasn’t really started, if I’m being honest,” she admitted, hoping that it didn’t seem like she was trying to be rude to Dimitri or anything by saying it. Neither of them seemed to take it that way, something she was thankful for. “How about you, how’s your evening going in the kitchen?”

“I’d prefer to spend my time in the kitchen over being out there with everyone, that much is for sure. Things are only going to get more hectic from here, I cannot imagine spending time stuck with some of the personalities that are going to show up.” Dedue was looking in the direction of Edelgard and her friends, but when he turned his head his eyes went with, until he was looking at the entryway. “I’d be careful with who you choose to spend time with, both of you. Don’t need to find yourselves in someone else’s drama.”

“Wise words, thank you, Dedue. We won’t keep you from your cooking any longer, go and continue enjoying yourself!” Dimitri laughed as he playfully waved for Dedue to leave, and they headed back towards their table with the conversation finished. “I know he means well when he tells us to stay out of the drama, but what kinds of drama will happen at an event like this? Romantic drama? Why would anyone include the two of us in that?”

It wasn’t romantic drama that they got pulled into almost immediately after Dimitri’s ill-fated statement, but it was close enough and could have certainly been read as such by someone not so familiar with the situation. The two of them were sitting at the table once more, idly talking and spending more time looking at everyone else milling around than each other, when Lorenz’s voice came echoing through the building, his request for wherever his best friend might have been unable to be missed by anyone. They looked at the door to see him coming in, side-by-side with Petra and Ferdinand of the Black Eagles, which caught them both by surprise because they had no idea he would associate himself with them. “I’m pretty sure Hilda said she wasn’t coming with him,” Byleth recalled, putting a finger to her chin as she vividly remembered the conversation where that had been determined, “so to save her some stress I probably should step in, huh?”

“Might be for the best,” Dimitri agreed, making no moves to stand up even when she did, letting her know that this choice was entirely one she was making by herself. “I’ll be waiting here for you when you finish with that.”

She nodded and with determination in her steps, she walked right towards the boy making a scene when one wasn’t necessary in the slightest, grabbing his arm before he could get even halfway across the room. “What are you—oh! Byleth!” There was a look of pure disgust in Lorenz’s eyes when he first saw the hand grab him, but once he saw who it was he softened, if only slightly. “I should have known you would be first in line to help me accost Hilda for her lies about this evening. It is, after all, what Claude would want you to do.”

“Yeah, something tells me that might not be the truth, but okay.” Already it felt like a mistake for Byleth to have stepped in, especially if Lorenz was going to make such baseless accusations about her reasons. But she wasn’t going to allow him to ruin the night of so many others, and if it meant having to be told she was only acting the way she was because of Claude’s influence, then so be it. “I’m stopping you because whatever Hilda did, she doesn’t deserve you to storm in here and make things go wrong.”

He pointed a very accusatory finger in the direction of just about everywhere in the building that wasn’t the front door or kitchen, shaking it as he looked for wherever his friend was, and once his sights were set on her the only thing stopping him from charging further was Byleth’s grasp. “Unhand me at once so I can settle this matter, you simply do not understand the duress her decision to not attend with me has put me through!”

“I’m sure I can understand it fairly well,” she replied, looking at Ferdinand and Petra, who were both doing their own thing already and didn’t seem to care that the person they’d come in with wasn’t with them any longer. “I never took you to be one to hang out with either of them. Er, well, maybe Ferdinand, but Petra doesn’t seem like your type.”

By that Byleth meant that one of them was snooty and stuck-up enough to make a friendship with Lorenz make sense, but the other was rather down-to-earth and felt much nicer. Lorenz didn’t take things that was, though, and his response proved it: “I simply had no choice with such a last-minute betrayal taking place! Ferdinand, despite our core differences, understands the struggle of being slighted by a woman time and time again, and he agreed to bring Petra with him only out of courtesy. My presence with them was natural and gave me more companions than Hilda seems to have. Why, she made such a big deal about not coming with me, but where is her date? Was she stood up?”

“I think she’s more focused on things running smoothly than she is having someone here to hang out with.” Byleth’s suggestion was met with an immediate eyeroll from Lorenz, who had a retort on his lips before she’d even finished speaking, but she didn’t give him the chance to say any of it before she was adding on, “This night was all _her_ hard work and planning, you didn’t exactly deserve to be part of it on her behalf.”

“H-how dare you say these things to me? Are you not aware of who, exactly, I am?”

She knew she was getting under Lorenz’s skin at that point, but Byleth was finding it somewhat fun to be pushing his buttons as she was. “I mean, I know who you are, I’ve known you for almost a year now. Your name doesn’t grant you permission to take up all of someone else’s time, especially when—”

Her words abruptly came to a stop when she heard a bellow from back by the doorway, and she let go of Lorenz in the shock of hearing it, fearing someone had come into the building without an invitation. But instead of finding a complete stranger there, she saw a well-dressed Caspar shaking his head and arms to get the snow off of them, giving another bellow as he did. Lorenz had a look of disgust on his face as he saw the display as well, and seemed to be primed to make some sort of off-hand comment about it, before Hilda skipped past them, miraculously not rolling her ankles in her heels as she approached Caspar at full speed. “I was beginning to suspect you weren’t going to make it!” she chirped, nearly leaping into Caspar’s unprepared arms until she saw he wouldn’t be ready to catch her. “It’s about time you showed up!”

“It would’ve been earlier if it wasn’t snowing out of nowhere,” he told her, giving her a look from head to toe before his face lit up like a lantern in the dark. “You look amazing, Hilda! Thanks for agreeing to let me come with you, it’s almost like a dream come true!”

“You mean she picked _Caspar_ over me?” Lorenz spat, eyes flickering towards Byleth to see what her reaction was, but her pleasant amusement with the turn of events was not what he had been expecting. “This is…I am…how did…she will hear about this when I get the chance to discuss things with her!”

Byleth gave him a pursed-lipped look before giving him some advice: “Maybe you should wait until tomorrow morning, or at least after tonight’s over. Don’t ruin this for her.”

“As tempting as it may be, perhaps you are correct on that.” Sighing, Lorenz gave Byleth a thankful nod before trudging off to rejoin the people he’d attended the evening with, while she cast Hilda and Caspar another glance before she was walking back over to the table where Dimitri was still sitting, having been joined with the friends he’d chosen her over. At least there were some people in the world who could have an amicable split with their intended dates at the last minute, she supposed, and she was lucky to have been involved with them rather than the other hairy messes happening around her.

Slipping back into her seat under the watchful gaze of not just Dimitri but Sylvain as well, Byleth hoped that the rest of her night wouldn’t be as eventful as the beginning to the dance had been, and she was given her wishes to some extent. Getting to spend the time with the foursome she’d been invited into for the night was fun, once she got past Sylvain’s always-watching eyes and Felix’s dour expression that rarely morphed into anything else. Dimitri was trying his best to keep her comfortable and feeling like she was wanted, because he was specifically her date for the night, and she appreciated that more than she knew words could express—and she knew that once she told Claude, he’d appreciate it too. Ingrid was definitely more entertaining than either of her dates, keeping up conversation with Byleth even when none of the guys wanted to, but she kept jumping up to go get food from the kitchen whether the others wanted it or not.

For it being the first time that Byleth could recall ever being dragged to an event of that nature, she couldn’t complain about how it went, about how she had more fun sitting there chatting with her friends than actually taking part in anything dance-related. They could see and hear everyone else trying to make dancing happen, and there were several occasions where some of the others came to their table to ask them if they’d join them out on the dancefloor, but it seemed the theme of the evening was people having a social time. The chaperones were monitoring so no one could get handsy (although no one at their table would have, based on how they were arranged to be seated), and every time Alois came by, he and Byleth would make awkward eye contact and she’d wish he wasn’t there.

He wasn’t the only chaperone who seemed to have a fixation with passing by their table, although at least Seteth made it seem like he was there to watch over others that weren’t Byleth. Balthus was continuing his interest in Byleth, made obvious by low whistles every time he walked by her, until Dimitri calmly and politely asked him to stop. Whenever Jeritza would pass, muttering something under his breath, his cold eyes were locked on Byleth’s face, and once Marianne’s father was there he was naturally drawn to passing Byleth by, always seeming like he wanted to strike up conversation with her for the second time. “We seem plenty popular tonight,” Dimitri remarked after watching Seteth walk by for the third time in a handful of minutes. “Anyone care to explain why all eyes seem to be on us?”

“Whatever it is, Sylvain probably did it,” Ingrid replied with a sigh, and Byleth found herself nodding in agreement despite knowing she was the reason herself. If she could roll with the blame being pushed elsewhere, that was fine by her.

“Ah, makes sense, it must be to do with your well-known flirtatious behavior.” The look Dimitri gave Sylvain was one that showed no anger, but when he saw Seteth walking by again moments later that look turned a bit sour. “Although it would be nice if we weren’t be watched like hawks. What did you do?”

Defensively, Sylvain backed away from the table, raising his hands and stating his case: “I haven’t done anything tonight, I swear! I guess it’s just assuming I _might_ do something, but really? Tonight’s not the night for that, I wouldn’t dare do anything to upset anyone on such a great night.”

“Wise words spoken by someone willing to ignore them at a moment’s notice,” Felix deadpanned, causing Ingrid to chuckle and Byleth to have to turn away from seeing whatever fallout was about to occur from the statement.

Instead of watching the argument she could hear starting up, she found herself looking across the room at where Hilda and Caspar were sitting and talking, their conversation too far away to be overheard. A stone’s throw away from them was Lorenz, watching them with narrowed eyes as he seemed to be half-heartedly listening to something that Ferdinand and Petra were talking about. Nearby were Leonie, Ignatz, and Raphael, sitting on the floor and sharing a few plates piled high of food between them, not caring that a somewhat formal event was happening in the room. Byleth’s head swiveled to look to the other side, where she could see Marianne being talked to by her father, Edmund looking like he was scolding her for something just based on his gestures, while Edelgard, Lysithea, and Hubert stood by, Jeritza circling them like a hawk at the moment.

Everything seemed just about as perfect as it was going to get that night, she decided with a firm nod, and it felt like the only thing missing was Claude sitting next to her, cracking jokes and sharing the evening with her. It made her wish she could contact him, but without her phone on her (and without it being technologically up-to-date with everyone else’s devices) she couldn’t even do that right then. Thankfully for her, someone seemed to be reading her mind on the matter, because moments after she’d turned back to see Sylvain and Felix in the middle of a somewhat intense staring contest, she felt hands brush against her shoulders, causing her to tilt her head back to see Hilda smiling down at her. “Come on, let’s get a picture of just us and our dates to send to Claude, to make him jealous!” she suggested, her expression bright and bubbly. “You’d be down for that, right?”

“I guess I would be,” she agreed, looking beside her with shifting eyes to see Dimitri shrugging, having heard the suggestion. “I don’t think Claude’s the only person that’ll be jealous seeing that picture, though.”

“If you’re talking about Lorenz, he can get over himself,” Hilda laughed, backing up so that Byleth could get out of her seat, and Dimitri was quick to follow. “This way, Caspar came up with a brilliant pose for us to take but we’ve gotta be fast about it, don’t want or need anyone trying to copy us.”

Instead of taking them towards the table where they’d been seated, Hilda led them straight to the door, which she opened to show Caspar standing outside in the snow, his teeth chattering but a huge grin on his face. “This is where your ‘brilliant’ pose is going to take place?” Dimitri asked, almost in disbelief. “Certainly you’re mistaken about this.”

“No way, this’ll be a picture for the history books!” Rapidly shaking several of his fists near his chest, Caspar seemed to be fired up about his plan, going into detail about how he wanted the guys to hold tight to the women to “warm them up” while the picture was taken. There was just one tiny problem with the whole thing—that being _who_ was going to take the picture—but as Byleth watched a car pull up in front of the building she felt she knew a solution was about to walk right up to them.

“What in the world are you kids doing out here?” Jeralt called out in question as he walked up towards the building, having parked the car for a change rather than waiting for Byleth to come out to it. “It’s freezing cold, and the snow’s not exactly great to be out in. Get back inside, and you—” he pointed to his daughter, “—grab your stuff and come with me, the road up here’s a nightmare and I’m not planning on wrecking on it tonight.”

“Sure thing,” Byleth replied, not moving an inch. “But before I get my things, will you take a picture for us?”

“Never thought I’d see the day where you wanted a picture of yourself at a school dance, kid.” Jeralt’s chuckle was hearty and genuine, and made Byleth feel like she was doing her father proud in the moment, and soon he was being handed Hilda’s phone while the four got into position and the picture was taken. It really did seem like a once-in-a-lifetime image when they all got to look at it, and Hilda promised she’d send it to the intended recipients as soon as she could, and with that agreement in stone they all headed back inside, three of them to stay for a while longer and one to grab her bag and go, per her father’s wishes.

Overall, despite the things that could have been better from the start, Byleth had a great time there at the Three Houses Club’s dance, and she almost wished that she could attend the one the following night. But that wasn’t meant to be, and before she left the building for the last time that night, someone else unable to attend the second dance approached her, asking her for a favor asked once before. “Come to my dorm tomorrow and bleach my hair, will you?” Lysithea asked, a pout-like scowl on her face as she waited for her answer. “I’ve got nowhere better to be, and after tomorrow who knows when I’ll have the chance to do it again.”

“I…think I can make that work,” Byleth replied, hoping Jeralt wouldn’t be too disappointed in her needing to be brought back the next day. “Send me where it is and I’ll be there.”


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: guns, death

“Glad we picked that dress for you, you looked better than that other girl you were with.” Jeralt started with as soon as he was pulling away from the club building, Byleth hugging her bag tightly to her. “But that might be your proud old man speaking, all things considered. How was your night with that Blaiddyd boy?”

“Fine,” Byleth sharply replied, not wanting to hear him start ragging on Dimitri like he’d chosen to rag on Hilda, “but can we move past my night? You know, the one you just cut short on me?”

If the road hadn’t been piled over with snow, Jeralt certainly would have done his wheel-jerking routine. “Would you rather me die on the way to get you later?”

“I could’ve stayed with a friend, or with Alois.” Neither of those were genuine solutions Byleth wanted to ever see happen, but she assumed throwing Alois’ name out into the car was what made Jeralt slam on the brakes for a second, causing the vehicle to fishtail slightly on the slick road. “What? I could have and you know it. I’m an adult, I can make decisions.”

“No one’s saying you can’t, I just didn’t think of those possibilities before driving up here in this snow.” There was resignation in Jeralt’s voice, making Byleth initially feel guilty for bring it up, until he added, “Oh well, coming and getting you’s for the best. All it takes is one night for you to wreck your life.”

“Father, I wouldn’t make some bad choice just because I stayed on campus at Garreg Mach for a single night. You’re sounding like…” She trailed off, looking at her father as her eyes filled with a new perspective. “Like you’re speaking from experience. Is that what’s happening? Is that why you hate this place?”

He grumbled a few curses before giving her a proper answer. “That’s not anywhere close to the truth, kid. Don’t get things twisted in your mind.” His dismissive attitude was a dead giveaway that there was more to the situation than he wanted her to know, and even though she knew she was getting close to the real story Byleth understood that pursuing the topic further in the car right then would be playing a dangerous game. As curious as she was about the underlying truth, she’d rather keep her life out there on the snowy roads as they made their way off of academy grounds.

Jeralt noticed, without looking, that Byleth wanted more from him, but he held his tongue and had them complete the much-longer drive home in complete silence. Even when they pulled into their spot outside their apartment, he wasn’t interested in saying more to her than what had already been said. That was fine by Byleth, though, as she immediately went in to her room to change into her pajamas and out of her dress, something that she was beginning to resent ever putting on. It wasn’t even that she’d suddenly realized she’d had a bad time at the dance, but rather that her father’s behavior towards her had soured things.

She went to sleep with an irritated mind and her phone within reach of the bed, just in case any of her friends at the club tried to contact her to check in. Her biggest wish as she drifted off was that the picture taken outside in the snow had been sent to Claude as promised, and that he would want to talk about it with her. Yet when she woke up the next morning, she’d received nothing from anyone, not even her date from the dance. For the first time she could recall, Byleth felt genuinely bothered by the lack of reaching out, the thrill of being a member of a social society finally diminishing to reveal her insecurities about being the odd man in the group.

Her eyes checked the time again and again, making sure it was the time she thought it was based on being awake. It was nearly nine o’clock in the morning, not an early hour on a normal day but perhaps everyone who’d been at the dance had chosen to sleep in after such a festive night—but that didn’t quite make sense. She knew for a fact that Lysithea, out of everyone there, had a secondary reason for needing to reach out to her, and waiting too long didn’t make sense given the time-sensitive request she’d made. It boiled down to one thing, and one thing only: Byleth’s phone wasn’t working and she’d finally need to upgrade it.

After conceding the fact, but not after doing as much taking it apart and restarting it as she could, Byleth took the phone and curled her hand around it, squeezing it tightly as if she could bring it back to life with the touch. Naturally it didn’t work and she was left having to leave her room to go ask Jeralt what there was that could be done about the broken device. It took a lot of strength to want to talk to her father after the night before, but when it came down to it her desire to connect with her friends was more powerful than her hard feelings from what had happened. But to her surprise, Jeralt was waiting for her in the living room, lifting an unfamiliar phone up over his head as she came out to see him.

“Figured you might be looking for this,” he said without so much as turning her head to see her coming. “Came in the mail yesterday, got it set up before I went to get you and forgot to give it off. Hope you’re not too mad about it.”

“You mean my phone…isn’t broken?” Byleth looked from the phone in between her father’s fingers to the one she was uncurling from her hand, knowing that it still turned on but was seemingly not working otherwise. He laughed and assured her it wasn’t, but that he’d done something nice for her and replaced it for her, and she sighed in relief. “Oh that’s good, but did all of my messages go to the new one? I’ve been waiting on some friends.”

“Thing didn’t stop going off all night, I couldn’t be bothered to figure out how to shut it off.” He waited until Byleth had taken it before explaining himself further. “Didn’t feel right to see what was going on with it, you know? Invading your privacy when you’d never do the same to me.”

As much as it felt like it was a dig to her more recent badgering about information about her mother, Byleth knew that Jeralt was making a point she didn’t want to argue with. “Well, I appreciate it from the bottom of my heart, Father,” she told him with a smile, tossing her old phone onto the couch next to him before gently kissing his cheek, something she rarely ever did. “It’s really nice of you to do this for me.”

“Least I could do, honestly. Someday I’ll…I’ll do better, I’m just…” Shaking his head, Jeralt turned to look into Byleth’s shining, grateful eyes. “I’m sorry I’ve been such a piss-poor dad for most of your life. Could’ve always been doing better for someone as special as you.”

“I wouldn’t say you were bad at all.”

“Cute words, coming from someone who’s never heard a word about her mother until earlier this year, who never spent much quality time with her old man until he got the job he never wanted to have.” He watched as her eyebrows narrowed in thought, while he though about what else there was he could say. “I’ll do better for you, starting right now. What say we look into some fishing trips for the spring, unless you’re interested in trying ice fishing.”

Byleth’s eyes relaxed, while her mouth slowly formed an amused smile that made Jeralt smile in return to see. “I’ll skip the ice fishing, thanks, but waiting until spring is fine.” She looked at her new phone and saw the long list of messages she had to go through, but Lysithea’s was on top and it had a time several hours from then that she wanted them to meet at, so knowing she had nothing else to do right then, she jumped onto the couch next to her father and gave him a nod. “I’ll need a ride back up to Garreg Mach in a bit, but before then…can we talk about this fishing trip and maybe, finally, something about my mother?”

“Don’t get your hopes up, kid, but I’ll think about it.”

* * *

The conversation that ensued and took up the time between when Byleth received her new phone and when they needed to set out to head over to the school was not exactly groundbreaking by any means, but she came away from it with a new understanding of who her father was and why he acted the way he did. He may not have told her much about her mother that she hadn’t heard before, but he did make it overwhelmingly clear that everything he did was strictly for her, and that he wanted to be a better father then than he’d ever been before. “I guess you’ll prove that to me when we go on this deep-sea fishing trip,” Byleth teased after they’d hugged out their feelings post-conversation, Jeralt managing a hearty chuckle at the comment. “Maybe _then_ you’ll tell me about Mother.”

“Yeah, bet Sitri would enjoy watching me talk about you while we’re out in the middle of the open waters, that just seems like the kind of place she’d like going.” The voice crack that Jeralt experienced mid-sentence did not go unnoticed by either of them, but Byleth didn’t mention it and he tried to pretend it hadn’t happened. “Guess we’ll have that to look forward to for the next few months. Great way to mark one year working at Garreg Mach again.”

“Which I still don’t know why you left the first time,” she reminded him, getting up from the couch to head to her room, a bounce in her step that had her hair tousling as she walked. She could hear him mutter something in her wake, but whatever it was, it wasn’t important enough to get distracted by. Their conversation had only drawn to a close because she’d looked at the time and noticed that it was about time to go, and as much as she wished she could’ve let it keep going on, she still needed to get dressed and ready for a day up at the school with friends. Ducking back into her room just long enough to change and grab everything she needed for the day, Byleth re-entered the living room to see Jeralt exactly where she’d left him, still in his loungewear and not looking like he was planning on driving anywhere. “Do you think we can take a few more minutes before we go, kid?” he asked, looking at her from his spot on the couch. “Got something else I want to tell you.”

“Uh, yeah sure,” she replied, figuring that Lysithea’s request couldn’t be so time-sensitive that a couple extra minutes would ruin it. “What else is there?”

He motioned for her to sit back down, which she did with minimal hesitation. There was something off about how he was acting, more serious and solemn than he ever was with her. “You’re right that I haven’t told you why I left Garreg Mach the first time, twenty-one years ago. But that’s because I didn’t want you gettin' it in that brilliant head of yours that you need to start searching there for answers for our past.”

“Father, am…I the reason you left?” Byleth knew that was the likely answer, because she was a couple months past twenty-one and that seemed like a safe guess. “I would hate to find out now that I caused you to walk away from a job that paid you so well.”

His mouth moved to a few silent words, before he gave a single, stern nod. “Sort of, at any rate. I left to protect you from Rhea, to keep her from doing to you whatever it was she did to Sitri. Indoctrination? Straight sabotage? Don’t know, don’t care to know. I didn’t want it happening to you, so we left.”

At once, Byleth felt the air chill around them both, and she looked into her father’s eyes to see the pain he’d been masking from her for as long as she’d been able to press into him, asking questions about the world around her. It now made sense as to why he’d been hesitant to take the job at the school, and why he didn’t want her having anything to do with Rhea, but there were so many other things left unanswered. “I see,” she said after taking some time to let the words process. “She killed my mother.”

“Hey now, let’s not start throwing accusations around like that, there’s no proof she did it, and if she did she’s certainly convinced the whole circus that she didn’t. But her hands aren’t perfectly clean of Sitri’s blood, and I don’t want yours on her hands either.” Jeralt grimaced, turning his head so that Byleth couldn’t continue staring him down as she tried to fully grasp his feelings. “And now that you know that, you can understand why I’m so, so thankful Alois volunteered me to be the one to watch over Rhea at all times I’m at the monastery. Which…includes tonight, I’m afraid.”

“The ball? You’re going to the ball?” Although she wanted to know more, and had been hoping that there was going to be further speculation about what Rhea’s involvement in her mother’s death had been, Byleth’s attention was immediately taken to the next step in the conversation. “That’s exciting, Father! You’ll get to see all of my friends there, and—”

“Kid, listen, I’m not there to chaperone your little friends. I’m there to make sure nothing happens to Rhea, because Seteth and the normal night guards can’t do it alone at events like that.” He spoke with such a disgusted tone that Byleth’s first reaction was to consider asking him why he was doing it in the first place, only to remember that he’d just explained why. “Guess I should get ready to go, though. Bet there’s going to be all sorts of talk about what I can and can’t do at their dance.”

She nodded, knowing that the dance the night before would have been a lot less strict than the ball would be. “I’ll just stay with Lysithea until you’re done, then?” she suggested, Jeralt giving her a confused look. “She’s not old enough to go to the ball, but all of her friends are. I’ll hang out with her until you can come pick me up.”

“That’s a plan if I’ve ever heard one.” Finally hoisting himself up off the couch, Jeralt made sure to ruffle Byleth’s hair as he walked past her, her turning her body to watch him go into his room before getting sucked into looking at her new phone. All she’d done on it since she’d gotten it was send Lysithea a confirmation message that she’d be going, but there were so many messages from the previous night that needed to be read—the most important of all being one from Claude that started with a smiling-face emoticon that she’d never seen on her own phone before.

He’d been sent the picture and was teasing her about it, about how she looked so overdressed compared to Dimitri and yet still didn’t look dressed up enough next to Hilda, although he chalked that up to Hilda taking things far too seriously. She would have laughed about it if she’d heard him say that out loud, but because she was reading it in a message hours after it had first been received the joke felt like it was missing something. There was a second part to it that hit her harder than the joke ever could have, though; Claude was really digging deep to make sure she knew that he felt bad he wasn’t there for her and that he wished he could’ve been with her rather than taking care of family issues.

Her only response was a thank you and an assurance that he didn’t need to choose her over family, that she’d still be there when he got home, and then she was moving on. During the time she was reading through a chain of messages from Hilda that she’d been sent (partially about the dance, partially about Claude, partially about Lorenz), Jeralt came out of his room and waved for his daughter to head out, which she did without any delay. The messages had to wait until they were on the road to Garreg Mach to get finished reading, something that Byleth wouldn’t have done had the roads been as bad as they were the night before, but they’d cleared up nicely even though the air was still frigid.

Their ride was filled with a lot of Jeralt trying to start conversations while Byleth was distracted on her phone, unaware that her father wanted to keep talking to her. Eventually he was able to get through to her with a jerk of the steering wheel, sending her head shooting straight up to examine her surroundings. “Never thought I’d see you so captivated by a phone of all things,” he said, righting their course and acting like he’d never intentionally swerved. “Guess it was gift well-warranted, huh?”

“Definitely, I can actually see some of the things my friends send me now.” Byleth had never realized how many emoticons were being sent out in the messages she got, because she’d never been able to see them before. Almost all of Hilda’s sentences were punctuated with them, and in the couple of messages she had from some of her other friends she saw them scattered around. In fact, of all the messages she’d received in the aftermath of the dance, the only ones that didn’t have any in them were Dimitri’s, which were typed rather formally and like he was trying to have real conversation over text messages. “Thanks so much for this, Father. It means a lot to be part of the tech age now.”

“It was always your choice not to have something so…new, but the time to get it was upon us. Glad you’re enjoying yourself, now don’t get too crazy with it.” The implication was there that he was talking about her sending things she shouldn’t have been, but he laughed at himself right away, realizing that he was talking to someone who’d never consider doing such a thing. “It’s about time you’re starting to live like a normal adult, even if you’re just taking baby steps to getting there. This time next year, maybe we’ll move to you having your own place, perhaps?”

She set her phone down on her lap and gave Jeralt the most unimpressed look she could muster in the moment. “Let’s not get ahead of ourselves, shall we?”

“Right, taking it one step at a time. Two years from now, then.” That was the last thing he said to her until they were on the academy grounds, and he needed to be directed to where she was to be dropped off, since it wasn’t the club building for a change. Together they managed to follow the very vague directions Lysithea had sent to get to her dorm building, where she and Edelgard were waiting outside. “Go on, you don’t want your friends freezing waiting for you,” he told her as he parked the car against the curb. “I’ll send you a text when I’m done with my duties later tonight, be listening for it. Have a good time doing whatever you young women like doing.”

“Thanks, Father, I’ll try my best.” She cracked a smile at him before jumping out of the car, waving him farewell as he drove away with a grimace prominent on his face. Taking a moment to sigh on his behalf, Byleth dropped her hand once she knew he wasn’t watching for her any longer and ran to meet the other two, who were both chattering in the cold. “Sorry about that, my father is…protective, to say the least.”

“No worries, Edelgard just got here a minute before you did,” Lysithea explained, while Edelgard lifted a plastic bag that was filled with several boxes of some sort. “She had to run and get the dyes we’re going to use today, since we only had enough for one head.”

“I hope you won’t be too bothered by the brand choice, but it was the only one they had in the correct shade,” Edelgard added, and it took Byleth a few seconds to realize that statement had been made in her direction, not in Lysithea’s like she initially thought. But by the time she’d realized it they were already heading inside and she didn’t want to hold everyone up by asking what was going on. Once they were up several flights of stairs and safely inside the small single-bed dorm room, though, she opened her mouth to say something and was met with Edelgard shushing her with a hand wave.

“I didn’t agree to getting my hair done, though,” she tried to say, only to get shushed again. “I really didn’t. Lysithea can tell you that.”

Surprised to hear her name get dropped like it did, Lysithea saw Edelgard’s eyes shifting to her and she stammered, “I-I mean, she didn’t agree to it, but that’s fine, right? It’ll look good when we make it happen.”

“Usually you do wait until the person consents to having their hair dyed before you do it, but I suppose Byleth can wait and decide what she wants to do once we’re both done with ours.” Setting the bag down on Lysithea’s bed and pulling out a box of bright-white hair bleach, Edelgard gave Lysithea a small nod and she bolted from the room, coming back moments later with a similar box of her own. “Let’s get started on ours now, since that’ll take some time, and if Byleth chooses to do hers as well then you can finish her dye job, can’t you?”

“I’m not a kid, of course I can!” Lysithea insisted with a pout. “I’ve only been dyeing my hair for a long time, I can do it for someone else this once!”

“Then why don’t you ever do your own?” The war of words began to escalate between the two, and Byleth felt awkward being there in the middle of their argument, if only because she didn’t understand why she was there in the first place if Edelgard was going to be there too. It had to be only because Lysithea had decided she was going to modify Byleth’s long, blue hair without asking her if that was fine.

But…was it fine? She’d never actually thought about the consequences of dyeing her own hair, or how her father would take it. She knew that Jeralt loved her hair because it reminded him of her mother’s, so would he handle her changing it up very well, or would he get angry that she’d stripped him of that reminder? He would have to understand that she was allowed to make her own decisions in life, and that she couldn’t forever live under his direction, but changing her hair could easily have been too big of a first step to make.

The dyeing process began, with the two with the bleached white hair doing theirs first in tandem while Byleth occasionally acted as an extra hand for either of them, offering them tools and gloves and bags as needed. While she felt like she was being slighted by being invited to do things and then not really do them, she’d fully accepted that the terms of her presence had been falsified from the start and that she played right into a devious plan that wasn’t her own. “Once we’ve washed this out of our hair, it’s your turn, I’d guess,” Edelgard told her, a bag holding all of her hair to keep the acrid smell of the bleach out of everyone’s noses as much as possible. “About an hour, then.”

“I can’t wait,” Byleth replied as dryly as she could, twirling a strand of her virgin hair to try and make them reconsider their plans. Sure, she could see herself with a bit of a different color, but she was quickly coming to realize she wasn’t ready to make that jump without having the proper amount of time to go over it.

Lysithea, picking up that Byleth wasn’t being wholly truthful, grabbed the box of off-brand hair bleach and waggled it a bit. “It’s totally safe, and going to make you look amazing when we do it! There’s enough in here for your whole head to get knocked down from that dark blue to a baby blue, and that’ll just be the cutest!”

Trying to picture the color in question, Byleth had only one comparison she could make. “Like Marianne’s hair?”

“Kind of, yeah! A bit darker, we won’t let it stay on your head that long to get it down that far. If you want to make those bigger moves, you’ll have to come see us again once your hair has gotten used to being bleached.” Instead of setting the box down like she should have, Lysithea tossed it to Byleth’s unsuspecting arms, having it hit her with a giggle. “Oops, my bad! I thought you were waiting for it.”

“On what planet was she waiting for that, because it certainly wasn’t this one,” Edelgard said with a shake of her head, the bag she was wearing crinkling. “Let’s think of something to do that _isn’t_ accidentally break the box of dye while we wait to clean up, shall we?”

What they decided on doing was sitting around, a phone in between them, watching videos that had become popular over the past few years to introduce Byleth to the culture of teenage girls now that she was years older. She, naturally, was not fully understanding of what she was seeing half of the time, but what came as more of a surprise was that the seemingly refined and snooty Edelgard did know what was happening. Lysithea almost always pointed out quotes from the videos that she and the others in the Golden Deer used at each other, and just thinking about some of those things and how she’d heard Claude say them took Byleth’s mind off of the videos and back onto her friend.

“I miss Claude,” she abruptly stated, coming out of almost nowhere with it, and Edelgard’s stunned reaction to the admission was only soothed by Lysithea handwaving it off as being triggered by something in the video. “Do you think he’s okay?”

“Frankly, I can’t say I care much about him at all, but I would assume he’s fine. Someone would have heard and shared if he was anything but.” Crossing her arms over her chest as she leaned forward, bringing her face closer to the phone to keep watching the videos rather than keep talking, Edelgard’s reaction did nothing to bring comfort to Byleth’s worry.

Neither did what Lysithea chose to do, which was ignore the question completely and begin trying to talk about something else entirely. The behavior both of them showed in that moment struck Byleth as concerning, and despite knowing it would be rude to be on her own phone when she was with friends, she pulled it out and began checking her messages frantically. It was an irrational worry she was overcome by, and she knew it the moment she saw that Claude had sent her a text in the time she’d been there in that dorm room, letting her know he’d be back in a couple days and to not miss him _too much_. “It’s like he knew how I felt right then,” she mumbled to herself, tucking her phone away and realizing that she had no idea how to get the other two to focus on the group rather than each other again.

It wasn’t long before the video had ended and Edelgard didn’t have that as her excuse to be ignoring Byleth, but she quickly found something else. “It’s been nearly an hour now, I think we can wash this out and get started on the second wave,” she claimed, despite all three of them knowing it had barely been half an hour, and that the bleach wouldn’t have been on long enough.

Lysithea tried to argue that it needed to stay on longer, but Edelgard would hear nothing of it. “I’m pretty sure if we wash it out now, I’ll have golden-brown roots instead of white,” she whined, hoping that a higher pitch to her voice would get her her way. “Please, let’s leave it on for at least another ten minutes.”

“You’re overreacting, it’ll be perfectly fine if we get it out right now. I’m not about to let you and your insistence singe both of our roots, after all of the hard work and care we’ve put into keeping everything an even color for this long.” The assertive tone Edelgard took seemed too intentional to be being done out of lies, and after a bit more protesting Lysithea gave in to the demand and the pair washed their hair of the bleach in almost silence, the sound of the water and their occasional remarks that it was too hot and burning their heads the only things Byleth heard coming from them in the bathroom.

When they came back, she was able to see that the bleach had done its job and their hair was evenly colored from roots to ends, which Lysithea seemed to still be struggling to understand. Edelgard, with a confident smile on her face, gave a nod towards Byleth, who knew that her time had come. “I’m not going to walk out of this dorm with hair the same color as yours, right?” she asked, knowing the answer but wanting to hear it one more time before she relinquished control of what her hair’s color was to someone else. Edelgard’s second nod was enough of an answer, and based on how well she’d known the timing for the dye job she’d just done to herself, it seemed foolish to question further.

The bleach that got put into Byleth’s hair had a softer smell to it, as if it wasn’t something quite as harsh as what had been previously used. “You’ll start to get tired of the scent in about five minutes, but you can’t give up then. It’ll be a while before you can get the dye out.” Lysithea spoke like she was trying to sell the product to her friend, not like she was one of the two people scrunching it into her head of hair. “We’ll try everything we can to keep you from smelling it though.”

“It may seem weird to do it, but having a bag over it all does help slightly.” When Edelgard spoke again she spoke with authority, making it hard to disagree with what she was saying. “I’m certain that when this is over, you’ll enjoy your new look and the others will too.”

Knowing that mentioning anyone by name could spell trouble for herself and what was happening, Byleth merely pursed her lips together, not even risking nodding in agreement in case that was too much motion for the work happening on her hair. “Next time I see everyone, they’ll be surprised to see what I’ve done, I bet.”

The girls dyeing Byleth’s hair exchanged a look between them, before Lysithea said, “Definitely, because you just don’t seem like the type to do this. Nails, maybe? I could see you going out with some of those other girls to get those done, but your hair? That’s real edgy and—”

She was cut off by the sound of what seemed like a siren off in the distance, slowly getting louder until it was blaring right in their ears, only to start getting quieter again. The sound caught them all by surprise, all three of them jumping when it had started to pick up in volume, but the work on Byleth’s hair continued until a booming message began to play over the loudspeaker: “Attention students and staff of Garreg Mach Monastery Academy. There is an active shooter situation occurring on campus. Please take shelter until further notice.” As it repeated, the girls, with a panic in their movements, took themselves from the living room to the bathroom, locking the door with all three of them inside and stuffing towels underneath the door to block out the light.

They could still hear the warning siren going off, but now that they were in their “safe place” there wasn’t much else they could do but wait. Lysithea continued working on Byleth’s hair until it was tucked up into a bag and left to sit, while Edelgard had discarded her gloves and was checking her phone to see what was going on. The moment there was no need for the light to still be on they shut it off and removed the towels from under the door, to slightly ventilate the room from the fumes of the dye. “I couldn’t find anything about what’s happening aside from people talking about being in their safe rooms,” Edelgard told them, having put her phone away so that they were sitting in near-pitch black darkness. “I’ll check again in a few minutes, but there’s no telling when we will find anything out.”

“This is terrifying,” Lysithea said, a timidness in her voice that showed her youth. “I never would have guessed that something like this could happen here, of all places.”

“And on the day of the ball, no less.” The hint of sadness in Edelgard’s voice was barely audible, given that she’d spoken during one of the siren’s louder moments. “I hope this is just a drill and that we will be able to attend the ball this evening, some people have been putting a lot of work into their plans for tonight.”

Not knowing what there was that she could say, Byleth sat quietly, trying to ignore the loud siren and the smell of her hair. Some of what she could think about was how she wouldn’t have been on the campus that day if she hadn’t been convinced to be there for exactly what she was doing, and she would have preferred to be at home over where she was. But that paled in comparison to her thoughts about her father and Alois, who she assumed were both somewhere on the campus, dealing with the situation at hand. It had to have been a drill, there was no way that they’d have let something happen to anyone on the campus.

When the siren turned off, it gave a final warning for everyone to stay in their locked-down places, to not leave until given the all-clear. At that, Edelgard pulled her phone out again, checking for any updates, and when she found something she gave a small gasp that caught both Lysithea and Byleth off-guard for a moment. “What is it?” Byleth asked her, beginning to get antsy to get out of the situation because the smell of the dye was beginning to irritate her nose and eyes. “Did you find what happened?”

“Not exactly,” she replied, dimming her phone’s screen again. “I know where they think it happened, though. Outside of the administrative offices.”

“Someone went after Lady Rhea? Or maybe Seteth?” Lysithea seemed to not like suggesting either of those options, but Edelgard’s silence in response was nothing but concerning. “Oh man, I hope they’re both okay. This whole thing is dumb, whatever it is.”

Their time spent in lockdown lasted for a lot longer than they would have liked or expected, and every few minutes Edelgard would be the one to check to see what was happening. She’d let them know when she saw posts on social media from others at the Three Houses Club, or when she’d get a message from someone else that was currently hiding in their own bathroom. Slowly they were able to get the picture that just about everyone they knew was safe and accounted for, but with a student body that went far behind the members of the club, the potential victims in the scenario were too vast to name.

When the siren came back on it came with the announcement that they needed to stay in their dorms or whatever building they were in, but that the lockdown was over. As Lysithea turned the light in the bathroom back on, she immediately looked to Byleth, giving a loud, dramatic gasp when she saw her hair within the bag. “We’ve got to get that dye out of there right now!” she yelped, frantically reaching to turn the water in the shower on while Edelgard, almost reluctantly, pulled the bag off of Byleth’s head.

Byleth didn’t know the gravity of what had happened to her hair until after everything had been washed and dried and she could look at herself in the mirror. Gone was her dark blue hair, as expected, but instead of the baby blue she’d been told she’d be getting, she was staring at herself with hair that could only be described as a seafoam green. “It was on too long, I’m so sorry,” Edelgard apologized, while Lysithea tried her hardest not to chuckle at the dramatic change. “This is what happens when our dyeing session gets interrupted with something that, as far as I can tell, didn’t have any real student impact.”

“Father is going to kill me when he sees this.” Grabbing her still-damp hair and staring at it like it was a foreign body, Byleth could only imagine Jeralt’s reaction to seeing it, a stern shake of his head and some remark about how she’d really grown up in the time he’d let her hang out with her friends. “That, or he’ll cut it off and tell me to start again.”

“H-hey, don’t think like that!” Lysithea seemed shaken that those were the two options Byleth had decided were the most plausible. “I’m sure he’ll love it, it…really fits you, once you actually look at it for a few minutes. Come on, let’s go wait for it to dry completely before we start trying to do other things to it!”

The two of them left the bathroom, Edelgard hesitating for just a moment before joining them, her hand on her phone in her pocket as if she was expecting it to go off as soon as she started moving. With the dye work out of the way, she was supposed to have left to start getting ready for the ball, but the announcement had been that they stay where they were, so that wasn’t an option. Instead, they went back to watching videos like they had been before, just to pass the time, until there was a knock at the door. “I’ll get it,” Edelgard said to the others, jumping to her feet and answering the door before Lysithea could argue against the decision. She opened it without even checking through the peephole, and was visibly taken aback when it was Alois on the other side, walking in with a grim expression. “Er, hello, are you here to escort me back to my dorm?”

“Not today, Miss Hresvelg, I’m afraid.” Alois looked around for a moment, before his eyes settled on Byleth’s confused face. “And you, Byleth! What happened with your hair?”

“These two happened,” she replied, not sure why he, of all people, was there in a time like the current one. “But that’s not important. What’s going on?”

“I’m here to get you.” Based solely on how his voice cracked as he said those five words, it was clear that there was something more that Alois was there for, but he wasn’t going to be sharing quite yet. He waved for her to stand up, her slowly getting to her feet as he said, “Come along, we must be quick in leaving, there are important places we must go.”

When she was fully standing, Byleth could look at Alois and see the pain in his eyes, which had yet to fade since he’d entered the dorm room. “Father said he would send me a message when he came to get me, but that was going to be later tonight after the ball. I’m going to ask again, what’s going on?”

“The ball isn’t happening, sorry to say.” His words came after a tear or two trickled down his cheek, which he brushed away with a trembling thumb. The reaction from Edelgard was subdued, the one from Lysithea was shocked, and the one from Byleth was pressing for more explanation. “There’s been an…incident, Byleth,” he continued, having to turn his eyes so that he was no longer looking anywhere near hers as he spoke. “A tragic accident that could have been so much worse had there not been someone willing to step in.”

“This sounds like something we need no part of,” Edelgard whispered, a solemn sound to her voice, and she motioned for Byleth to go. “Head out with Alois, we don’t need to know what is going on until the student body of the academy as a whole knows. This seems rather personal, based on…this reaction.”

“Thank you for understanding, Miss Hresvelg. Apologies for intruding into your room, Miss Ordelia.” Bowing his head toward them both, one at a time, Alois offered Byleth a hand after he’d said his piece and she took it, still not fully sure what was happening but knowing very well that it was a serious matter. She didn’t ask for more information until they were outside into a snowy and completely still world, no people to speak of out and about on the academy grounds. “Byleth, my dear, this pains me to have to tell you but—“

“Where’s Father?” she asked, cutting him off without any remorse. “I want to hear whatever it is from him, since he was obviously there.”

“—yes, well, that is where the problem arises. You see, earlier this afternoon a supposedly rogue gunman approached Lady Rhea’s office and began making threats and demands, and as your father began trying to appease her, trying to talk her down from her perch if you will, an accomplice stepped in, assuming they had a clear shot of the archbishop and…” Alois trailed off, noticing the slack-jawed look of complete disbelief that had overtaken Byleth’s usually stoic face. “I know, take all the time you need to process through that information.”

“He was _shot_?” she asked, the words feeling like foreign entities on her tongue. “Take me to him now, Alois! I need to be there for Father, it’ll make him feel better!”

“Byleth, there is no ‘taking’ you to him. The gunman’s shot struck him in the neck and sent him to the ground immediately, and while it was only one bullet the injury was fatal.” Byleth could feel her heart sinking into her stomach, and the conglomeration of organs sliding down to the soles of her feet at those words. “We were able to accost the two assailants, and take them into the hands of the law, but your father passed before there was a chance to have him treated by medical officials.”

How badly she wanted to scream at Alois for telling her lies in that moment, but based on how he was being so serious and not cracking jokes she knew that he wasn’t playing with her emotions right then. He’d witnessed his long-time friend’s death, and then had to break the news of it to that friend’s only child, and he was suffering just as much as she felt she was. “I don’t believe it,” she quietly said, her voice trembling despite knowing she wasn’t going to cry. “There’s no way Father would take a bullet for a woman he hated.”

“And that right there is why the whole situation is so tragic! If I hadn’t roped him into being Lady Rhea’s bodyguard today, he would still be with us, although she may not be. This, by some cruel choice of the goddess, is ultimately my fault, and I don’t think there are enough apologies I can make for my hand in it.” Dropping to his knees, Alois looked up at Byleth not as a man who’d been her father’s friend, but as someone begging for divine forgiveness, as if she was the goddess he prayed to. “Please, do not hold what has happened against me, it was not my intention to have this happen.”

“You don’t have to blame yourself, Alois, I understand completely.” She was taking it a lot better than she (or anyone, really) would have expected, even though it was the single worst thing that could have happened to her. “I guess this is the world’s way of telling me I need to grow outside of my father’s shadow.”

“Y-yes, that could certainly be one way of taking this,” he agreed, standing back up and brushing snow off of his knees. “Shall I take you home to grab your things? Jeralt and I had spoken often about how he was wary of you living on your own, so until you’re ready for it I’ll have you stay with me.”

A laugh escaped Byleth’s lips—genuine and haunting. “I don’t think so. I’ll be staying at my home, not yours, and I can take care of myself just fine. Money may be an issue, but I’ll make it work. Please, though, take me home.”

He felt like he could do nothing but what she wished, and so they were on their way off of the monastery grounds within minutes, Alois able to get through the security blockade at the entrance due to who he had with him. True to Byleth’s word, the moment he dropped her off at the apartment she went inside and had no intention of going back out with him, but that was all she did. She took a few steps inside, got the door closed and locked behind her, and collapsed onto the floor, not even making it to the couch. For the first time in her life, she was crying, sobbing genuine tears that caused her whole body to shake and quake, and she felt like her entire sense of being had been ripped from inside of her.

Whoever had tried to kill Rhea had taken her father from her, and that was something she would never, _could_ never get over.

* * *

The next several days were a blur as Byleth became accustomed to being self-sufficient there at the apartment. She knew how to cook, she knew how to clean, she knew how to do everything she needed in order to survive except pay bills and get a job, and she was painfully aware that those two things were skills she would need in the coming days. Her friends had been trying to reach out to her, based on how often she would see her phone light up with new calls and messages, but she wasn’t speaking to anyone. The only reaching out she’d accepted had been the day after the murder, when Alois had stopped by again to talk to her, explaining more about his side of things, namely how he knew where she was (that was because Jeralt had told him minutes before things fell apart), and how he knew what he needed to do to help her (that being uproot himself rather than uproot her).

She’d kindly accepted the story that further painted that bloodstained afternoon in her mind, and had rudely slammed the door on him the moment he offered to live in her father’s bedroom in his place.

Those days were spent staring into nothingness, whether it was in her bedroom or out in the living room, all sense of who she was and what she was meant to do in the world sapped from her the moment she’d learned her father had died. Jeralt had been such a solid figure in her life, her only parent and her closest companion, that it didn’t matter that his friend was trying to fill a void in her heart. It didn’t matter that she had a club full of friends who wanted to know she was okay. What mattered was that she was utterly, truly alone in the world for the first time in her life, and she didn’t know what to do except do nothing at all.

Her first venture out into the world post-murder was to go to Jeralt’s funeral, which was held up at the monastery because, even though he’d hated the place and the woman who was in charge of it, the truth was that his wife was buried there and he too would be. She was picked up outside the apartment by Seteth, who was dressed in all black and was completely by himself, Flayn nowhere to be seen. “I have nothing but remorse for what transpired there in that office, despite having nothing to do with it,” he said as he saw Byleth, also in black with her seafoam hair tied up in a ponytail, coming towards the car door he was holding open for her. “Your father was a great man, and his presence in our lives will be mourned.”

Unable to speak without crying (something she’d done many times in the days since Jeralt’s death, despite having never cried before that), Byleth mutely nodded and hoped that she wouldn’t have to say anything at all. Seteth seemed to understand why she refrained from using words and helped her into the passenger’s seat, before walking around the car to his own spot and driving away without a word. While they rode in silence, he would occasionally look over at her and sigh, not sure what he could say to someone he barely knew about her father’s death.

The one thing he ended up saying was something that struck Byleth deep, hitting a nerve and a chord in her heart at the same time. “I was about your age when I lost someone dear to me,” he told her, keeping his eyes on the road ahead as clouds began to descend down on them, a storm blowing in at a most inopportune time. “It was quite a different kind of attachment than the relationship between a father and daughter, but it was a deep attachment nonetheless, and her loss still causes aches from time to time.”

His defenses were coming down for Byleth, and she couldn’t say anything about it for fear of becoming a babbling mess. “It never gets easier to go on once you’ve lost someone so important in your life, and even though I did not know him for long I always looked to Jeralt as a beacon of hope that someday the pain would disappear. He never seemed to be struggling with his loss, after all.”

Byleth’s lower jaw trembling, she desperately felt the need to tell Seteth that he was wrong, that her father had always been affected by the loss of her mother, but she stopped herself when she realized that she wasn’t going to do herself any favors by correcting that. In death, her parents could be reunited for the first time in twenty-one years, and that was the single bright spot in the whole ordeal. “Your father was an outstanding man and he sacrificed himself for the best of the church and the academy, whether he meant to or not,” Seteth finished, sounding a bit choked-up himself. “Lady Rhea and I are both deeply in his debt, and he will most certainly be rewarded for his sacrifice in the presence of the goddess.”

That was the end of his conversation with her, and he did not try to say anything else for the rest of their ride, and only told her that they were going to the main chapel upon getting up onto monastery grounds. The chapel was swarming with students and staff alike when they pulled up, and the first person Byleth noticed standing outside, holding a vase of flowers in his hand, was Claude. Seteth seemed visibly bothered by his presence but stopped the car right near him anyway, and got out to open her door for her. The moment she was standing Claude was setting the vase down and rushing to meet her, arms opened wide to pull her into a deep, long hug.

“I’m so sorry that this happened to you,” he whispered into her ear as he squeezed her, causing her to lose the last shred of control she had over her emotions, tears freely falling from her eyes into his shoulder. “Your father was a brave guy, and the fact that a bastard like that Jeri—”

“This is no time for that sort of crass conversation,” Seteth scolded, having heard what was being said and putting a stop to it. “While the accused does deserve blame, this is not the time nor the place for it. Let it go today, bring it up when we are not mourning a loss.”

“—right, yeah, sorry.” Claude heaved a sigh, squeezed Byleth a bit tighter, and finally pulled back from her, just to grab the vase he’d been holding and offer it to her. “I got this for you, figured you’d want a little something to brighten up your life right now.”

Trying to choke out a thanks and unable to do so, Byleth took the flowers and buried her nose into them, taking in the scent of their blooms. They were sweet-smelling, reminding her of the ones her father bought every year around her birthday, always claiming they were to bring life to the home a little but she’d known they were in memory of her mother. “It’s gotta be rough, losing your dad like that,” Claude continued, watching Byleth’s eyes fall onto him after taking in another breath of flower scent. “Here I was, thinking the worst that could happen is seeing my grandfather on death’s door, but you really outdid me on this one. And that…that sucks so bad, and I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine,” she managed to say, trying not to make it too obvious that she wasn’t a fan of him making it seem like there was a contest going on about whose life sucked more in that moment. “Why are you here, anyway?”

He looked at her like she was crazy, then turned around to open his arms wide towards the crowd that was there at the chapel. “Everyone at the academy is here to pay their respects, your dad did die so that Lady Rhea wouldn’t, after all. Dude’s a hero in everyone’s book.” As he turned back toward her, he added, “Except I’m here for you, because I figured you’d need some support during all this. I’ll be here if you need to cry on me again, no takebacks.”

Flattered by his genuine care and reasoning for being there, Byleth’s tears began to stream down her cheeks again, only amplified when Claude wrapped an arm around her and took her inside the building, to find her seat for the ceremony. There were almost as many people inside as there had been outside, a surprise for her weary eyes, but right near the stained-glass mosaics staring down at everyone with images of the goddess were roped-off seats that Claude took her to, one labeled with her name and one with his. “I might’ve asked Seteth if I could be the one here with you, and he might’ve needed a lot of convincing that I could do the job, but here we are, huh?”

“Here we are,” she repeated, looking up at the eerily-lit windows due to the incoming storm before her eyes fell onto the open casket underneath the biggest one. She could see the tuft of hair that adorned the front of her father’s head and she broke down harder than she ever had, nearly running up to go see his face but being restrained by Claude. He had her set the flowers down before he took her up, letting her go when she was right near the podium and stepping several paces back as to not intrude on her private moment.

It was most certainly her father’s face she found herself looking down on, his eyes closed and lips manipulated to look like he was having a peaceful dream, a tie wrapped around his throat to mask the bullet hole that had killed him. “It is quite a shame to see someone as devoted to life as Jeralt laying here,” a voice that Byleth wasn’t familiar with said, and when she turned to see the speaker she was met with a woman with hair a similar green to her own, wearing flowing robes and charms and a headpiece that showed her power in the church. “It pains me that this is our first meeting in your adult life, Byleth, but there is a time and place for every such encounter. I am Lady Rhea, and let me offer you my condolences about the loss of your father.”

The air that Lady Rhea gave off was one that Byleth didn’t fully understand in that moment, with her emotions in shambles and her life completely off track. She was standing in the presence of the archbishop of a church and the headmaster of an academy, and all she could manage was a tearful smile and a nod. “No need for words right now, my child, I can understand your pain and do not need you to speak it to me. Your loss of your father cuts you deeply, just as it impacts us all.”

“I…can’t believe this is him,” Byleth said after a few minutes of standing over her father’s body, knowing that Rhea was still right there with her. “And he died for you, of all the people he could have died for.” It sounded bitter (and it was, honestly), but Rhea didn’t seem to take it that way, breaking into some speech about how a father’s love would outlast even death and that she shouldn’t be upset that he died for someone that wasn’t her. “I don’t care, I don’t want him dead.”

“There is no way to bring the dead back to life, my child.”

Byleth turned around, a fire burning in her crying eyes. “I still don’t care. He shouldn’t have died for you.”

That was when Claude stepped in, grabbing Byleth’s arm and trying to calm her down. “You handle this ungrateful woman, Claude, and when this ceremony is over I expect her escorted out immediately. She shows none of the promise I had hoped she would, and her presence is no longer welcomed in my monastery.”

“She was just staring down her dead dad, I don’t know what kind of reaction you expected from her,” he grumbled, biting his tongue and pulling Byleth back from the casket before anything else barbed could be said. By the time they got over to their seats, Rhea had walked away as well and Byleth thought to run back up, but he stopped her. “No, you’ve already crossed one line, don’t get yourself removed from your dad’s funeral because someone’s mad you’re upset your father died for someone who isn’t you.”

Nodding, Byleth tried her best to calm herself in preparation for what was to come, but soon came the flood of apologetic well-wishers, all wanting her to know how bad they felt about what happened. There were some notable people missing from the parade of “sorry” and “I feel so bad” statements, and the biggest one that stood out in Byleth’s mind was Edelgard. How could she have been with her when everything had gone down, only to completely skip out on the funeral in the aftermath? She would soon find out the reason for that, but it was drowned out by her tears as she was listening to everyone’s stories about one Jeralt Eisner and the impact he’d had on Garreg Mach in his two stints at the academy. There was nary a dry eye in the room when the ceremony came to an end after a rousing speech from Alois, who’d been in the room where the murder happened and had been the one tasked with letting the last person alive who shared Jeralt’s blood know that he had been killed, and it was at the conclusion of his time at the front that Byleth decided allowing him to step in and help her live her life would be what her father would want.

But with her having been told she wasn’t allowed at Garreg Mach any longer, due to Rhea’s spite, she wasn’t sure how that would work, beyond Alois coming down to live in the apartment like he’d offered. That was a problem to solve at a later time, though, as right then she needed to get through the burial, seeing her mother’s grave and the freshly-dug one for her father next to it, and once he was down in the ground and she placed the flowers Claude had given her on the mound, she knew that it was over. He was there to walk her out to the curb, talking about how Rhea’s mind would change and she’d be allowed back soon enough, but all Byleth wanted was to go home and sleep for a week.

She was not looking forward to living the rest of her life without her father and without the family of friends she’d made over the past year; when Alois found her there at the curb with her head laying in Claude’s lap as they’d sat down to wait for a ride, snow was beginning to fall and the parting between great friends was one of sadness and lament. “Promise me we’ll keep in touch,” Claude said as he gave Byleth another hug, her rapidly shaking her head to tell him that was the plan. “I’ll make sure Lady Rhea’s mind gets changed sooner rather than later, the Club’s not going to be the same without you and everyone else who’s getting kicked out, but you’re the only one I’m gonna miss.”

“I promise this isn’t goodbye,” she assured him, choking out, “I’ll talk to you again, I’ll see you again, I’ll be with you again.” When that _again_ would be, she had no idea, but she never would have guessed it would be as far away as it ended up being.


	6. Chapter 6

A lot changed over the course of the next five years, which passed Byleth by in the blink of an eye. She went home after her father’s funeral and refused to leave again, despite knowing that she needed to be taking care of herself now that she was without her guardian; expecting this to happen immediately Alois had stepped in and supplied her with groceries and companionship as she wanted it. Byleth didn’t want to admit to him that she appreciated his efforts in keeping her alive, or at least not through words, choosing instead to finally accept that he could stay over, in Jeralt’s bedroom, and it would be no problem if he was doing it to help her.

Eventually she came to miss Alois when he’d be back at work, still doing his job at Garreg Mach and living on the academy grounds, even though he was caring for someone banished from setting foot on the property again. On occasion, when the weekend would come and he didn’t want to make the drive when he didn’t need to, he’d bring his wife with him to the apartment and she’d stay there with them. Having had no idea that Alois was married in the first place, Byleth was quite surprised the first time she’d met Mrs. Rangeld, but she slowly accepted her as another guardian figure in her life, an aunt to the uncle that Alois had become to her.

She dropped out of college completely, even though she was within grasp of all three of her degrees. It wasn’t a decision she talked to anyone about, just sending emails to all of her instructors letting them know that, due to her father’s passing, she could no longer afford and continue attending her courses, and even though several of them offered to make arrangements to get her to graduate she stopped contacting them entirely. The depression that Byleth had sunken into in the wake of everything was doing more than strip her of her friends (who she chose not to reach out to for anything), but her life’s goals and every hobby she’d ever had. Her days were spent sitting in her bedroom, motionless unless necessary to move, and her only human contact in those years were the two adults who’d made it a point to raise her in Jeralt’s place.

The first person from the Three Houses Club to break through the barriers Byleth had constructed in her depression and exile was, out of everyone, Bernadetta. She’d been one who had sent messages over the years, ones that Byleth looked at and chose to ignore because she couldn’t be bothered being social, but that cold shoulder was not enough to get Bernie to back down from reaching out. She went about it in a roundabout manner, using Alois to make her way into the apartment and find herself standing on the opposite side of Byleth’s bedroom door, a shaky hand poised to knock.

It was the knock that finished that five-year-long blink Byleth had been experiencing, and the moment she heard it and didn’t recognize who it was, she rose from her bed where she’d been sitting and went to check who was there. The moment she cracked the door open and saw someone with purple hair and a surprised look in her eyes, Byleth went to close it up once more, but Bernie spoke before she could shut her back out. “I know you probably don’t want to see me, but I want to see you.”

“How did you get here?” Byleth asked her, in a voice hoarse and clearly unused over the past several years—after all, she’d only spoken to Alois and his wife, and that was when they were there and it was necessary. “I didn’t invite you.”

“Alois brought me, I reached out to him and explained what I wanted and…yeah, that’s what happened.” Putting a smile on her face, Bernie looked so much happier than she ever had as the meek girl in the club building. “It’s been so long, Byleth, and I’ve been so worried.”

Pursing her lips together as she tried to figure out if she was being deceived or not, Byleth said, “You’re talking more than you used to. You’ve changed.”

“It _has_ been five years, you know. Everyone’s changed. Can I come in?” It was much more forward than the Bernie she’d known before ever would have been, but Byleth was understanding that enough time had passed to make the change possible and she opened the door a bit more. “I can’t fit in that, Byleth. More, please.”

For a moment Byleth considered not opening the door any further and leaving Bernie to solve the problem herself, but she chose not to be quite that rude and opened it further, just enough that Bernie could slip inside and stare at her with a look of near disbelief in her eyes. “Why do you want to be in here?” Byleth felt as if she never was going to find the end of her questions in this strange situation. “Couldn’t we just talk through the door?”

“We could have, but…” Taking a deep breath, Bernie gave Byleth a confident (almost strangely so, coming from her) nod and opened her arms wide, rushing her for a hug that Byleth was unsure of what an appropriate reaction would be for. “I’ve missed you. Everyone I still talk to misses you too.”

Worming her way out of the hug as fast as she could, Byleth backed away and pointed a finger right in the face of the other woman in her room. “Who are you and what have you done with the real Bernadetta?” She’d only noticed that this woman had purple hair when she was talking on the other side of the door, and the face looked somewhat familiar to how she remember Bernie’s face looking, but everything else about her was different, from personality to physical appearance. Gone was the mousey girl with her messy, short hair, replaced with someone more rounded around her edges, with blunt bangs that hung on each side of her face and a long ponytail split across both shoulders, who still looked like she was somewhat afraid to be where she was.

“I am the real Bernadetta,” Bernie assured her, smiling sheepishly. “You’ve just missed watching me grow into who I now am.”

Still not fully convinced, Byleth continued, “And you’re friends with Alois, and he’s how you decided to show up inside my bedroom?”

“That’s right, I’ve kept in contact with Alois even though I no longer have anything to do with Garreg Mach. Why can’t you accept that I’ve grown up?” It was a valid point she was making, but Byleth’s mind was still stuck in the way things had been five years before that she wasn’t coming to terms with the changes as quickly as it would have been appreciated. No matter how much Bernie tried to convince her that she was seeing the friend she’d once knew, it didn’t work, and she ended up leaving without having broken down any barriers around Byleth’s heart.

Except one, which was the barrier that had kept Byleth from reaching out about anyone related to her days there at the Three Houses Club. The next time she saw Alois, when he came by with fresh groceries that evening, she was waiting for him in the living room, which was still decorated exactly as it had been before Jeralt’s death, her arms crossed over her chest and her long blue hair (she’d chopped off the dyed ends the moment she could, hating that she’d ever done it in the first place) sprawled out over the back of the couch. “Fancy seeing you out of your bedroom for a change,” he joked, closing the door behind him with his foot as his arms were carrying several bags filled to the brim with food. “What is the occasion here, Byleth?”

“Why did you invite Bernadetta over here without telling me?” she asked, trying to keep her voice as flat and neutral as she could. “I wasn’t expecting any guests today, and you didn’t give me any warning about it.”

“Oh, was that today? I must have forgotten to warn you in advance, my apologies.” Walking into the kitchen to set his load down, Alois returned with a smug smile upon his face, twirling one end of his unusually long mustache as if he was deep in thought. “I though that Miss Varley’s reasons for wanting to swing by and meet with you were noble enough, so I allowed for it without conferring with you first. Was…was there a problem today? You seem physically well, she certainly didn’t cause you any bodily harm, did she?”

Byleth shook her head, watching Alois visibly soften at her response. “No, there wasn’t a problem, it was just unexpected. You haven’t lined up any other surprise visits for me, have you? If you have, go ahead and tell me.”

“No, she is the only one who’s spoken to me about coming to see you, although with how much of a social butterfly she seems to have become, perhaps she’ll be the one arranging for further visits with others! I’d definitely keep an eye and ear out for talk on the matter, but none of your old crowd still attends the monastery and so my contributions on sleuthing this out would be minor at best.” He chuckled, a deep belly-laugh that made Byleth feel at ease with his statement. There was no way Alois would be blatantly lying to her right then.

“If that’s the case, I’ll have to reach out to her myself to make sure that doesn’t happen. Thank you for your honesty, Alois, I appreciate it.” Lifting herself up off the couch, letting her hair hit her mid-back as she stood, Byleth gave Alois a look that was quite unlike a smile, but with an understanding in her eyes that let him know that she was happy at the moment. “I suppose you’ll be staying here tonight?”

“Wish I could, but the wife has a party she’s been invited to and I’m her plus-one. Holiday season, you know, can’t skip out on everything that doesn’t entertain me!” His jolly laugh, while contagious with just about everyone else, fell flat on Byleth, and he quickly moved on in what he had to say. “I should be back by tomorrow night, however, and staying through the weekend, whether she has other plans or not!”

“So I’ll have the house to myself overnight…” Her voice trailing off, Byleth thought about what she could do with the alone time she now had, as if most of her time wasn’t spent alone anyway. “Very well. Thank you so much for the groceries, Alois, and have fun at your party. Don’t get too drunk, okay?” He chuckled again and soon he was off, leaving her to her own devices until he came back.

The first thing Byleth did was run back to her room and grab her phone, looking through the messages she’d ignored for so long. It was another gift of Alois’ kindness that had allowed her to keep her phone on in the first place, and she’d wasted it by ignoring the device entirely; almost instantly she noticed that Bernie had been sending her quite a few messages lately, asking if she would be up to meeting face-to-face. Feeling a bit silly that she hadn’t noticed that she’d been given the forewarning she’d hoped for, she went to check everyone else’s messages to see what they’d been saying to her in her mental absence.

For the most part, the messages had dried up years in advance, with a few exceptions. Bernie’s messages were one, as were weekly ones from Hilda checking in on her, but most surprisingly to her, there were messages from Marianne asking her if she was okay almost monthly. Those two brought a pang to Byleth’s heart, as she’d never suspected that they’d cared that deeply about her all this time, and she wanted to make things up for the time she’d missed with them. She got as far as the new message screen with Hilda as the recipient before she realized she didn’t have the slightest of clue as to what she wanted to say to begin apologizing for how she’d disappeared for so long. There were no words she had right at that moment to give, to explain, to try and justify her long-standing depression, and so she set the phone aside, laid back in bed, and wished that she knew what she needed to do next.

Her eyes felt heavier than she realized and she was soon asleep, waking up the next afternoon with still no idea as to what she should be doing. Sighing, she grabbed the phone once more and began reading through more messages to try and drum up any ideas, hoping that someone would be her saving grace and give her exactly what she needed. “I can’t believe some of these people actually tried talking to me after everything,” she said to herself as she scrolled through more of the messages, seeing ones from Dimitri and Sylvain, from Mercedes and Annette, from Leonie and Raphael and Ignatz, but noticing the date attached to them was years previous.

The one that stopped her in her tracks was a message from about three and a half years prior from Claude, which started with him asking her to reply so that he knew she was still alive. Her heart panging at the fact that he’d never gotten that answer, Byleth pressed it and read the entire thing, seeing how Claude bared his soul to her in that message talking about how he hoped she was fine and doing well but knowing that she was most likely not going to respond and that was okay with him. It wasn’t the answer she’d been looking for by any means, but it was something she could use as a springboard to get her message to Hilda written in a way that wouldn’t be ignored, and soon she was back on that blank screen furiously typing away at a friend who’d never forgotten her. Minutes and one proofread later and Byleth hit to send the message, hoping that Hilda would see it immediately and draft an understanding response:

_I’m so sorry that I basically dropped off of the face of the world after Father died, but I couldn’t control myself and my emotions and it’s only now that I’ve realized how dumb it all has been. I see that you’ve still tried to keep your friendship with me and I want to take you up on all your offers and see you whenever possible. It’s been five years but it could only feel like five minutes when we’re back together. Please let me know how you and everyone else have been as soon as you can, but if you don’t want to reply that’s fine, I understand._

_Oh, and if you’re still talking to Claude, please tell him I’m alive, at least._

She cringed at how her words could have come off as somewhat desperate, but she’d made some mistakes during her depression and wanted to work to make them better. If anyone else was going to understand her and what she’d done, it had to be Hilda, especially since Bernie had already shown she’d understood. But she knew that she wasn’t in charge of how anyone else reacted to her behavior, and she couldn’t try to control how her apology was perceived, no matter how much she wanted to.

Hilda replied before Byleth’s phone screen could even dim, giving a bunch of emoticons to signal how she felt, before diving into a much longer, in-detailed message. As calming as it was to get a response so soon, Byleth knew that there was still plenty of room for things to go wrong, and she waited with baited breath for whatever else there was to come. If her initial message had been long, then Hilda’s message was novel-length, making it very clear that no hard feelings existed between them before going into what everyone she could think of had been up to in the past five years, with one exception; the lack of her talking about Claude was telling, and Byleth’s stomach began to churn at the idea that perhaps something had happened and Claude wasn’t her friend any longer.

The answer to that fear came at the end of the barrage of messages, when Hilda sent a picture that Byleth opened as soon as it had downloaded. It was of Hilda herself, flashing a grin with her fingers in a peace sign over her eyes, but holding the phone in the selfie position was a darker-skinned arm that Byleth recognized as being a bit deeper in color than Claude’s would have been. _Before you freak out, we’re just chilling beside the indoor pool at the gym,_ Hilda’s follow-up message read, _and he is SO excited to get to see you when you come over._

If the picture had calmed the anxiety, the message following it had amplified it, because Byleth did not recall ever saying she’d go over to see Hilda anytime soon. She considered explaining that but chose not to, accepting that she couldn’t continue hiding in her bedroom at home if she wanted to rejoin the social world outside, and swallowed down any reservations to the idea and said she’d love to come over whenever. _Oh, good, so tonight? We’re having a party, it’s going to be amazing and you’re totally invited!_

A party was the least appealing thing in the world to Byleth and she was sure Hilda could guess that, but when her last positive experience with the Three Houses Club had been their dance the night before the ball (that ended up being cancelled), it might have just been the goddess above orchestrating things. It was only fitting that she get back into everyone’s lives in a similar way to how she’d been the last time she’d been there, after all. So, despite her resevations she accepted the invitation and pointed out she’d need a ride, to which Hilda promised she’d make arrangements if it meant Byleth would be there no matter what.

The temptation was there to change her mind, but remaining steadfast Byleth replied with a message that feigned happiness and excitement, only for Hilda to tell her that the ride would be showing up sooner rather than later. In fact, the time that she was given for the arrival was merely an hour away, and a single hour did not seem to be reasonable for getting ready to go, but again Byleth couldn’t will herself to say she wasn’t actually interested in going. She accepted the sudden arrival time with poise and thankfulness, and the conversation went dead after confirming her address.

Her phone clattered to the ground as she, stunned at the turn of events, began looking around her room for what she could do to get ready for such an occasion. It had been five whole years since she’d seen anyone who’d realistically be at this party, and she had nothing in her closet to wear that was newer than that, which would mean she’d given everyone the impression that she’d done nothing in her time she’d been gone. Which, as true as that might’ve been, it wasn’t the illusion she wanted to give everyone; this meant that Byleth had to think quick on her feet and come up with some way to pretend she’d not been laying around her apartment completely devoid of any sense of self for five damn years.

It took some scissors and some deciding that the leggings she’d once loved could use a second life cut into shreds, as well as layering shirts that she’d never thought to wear together, but Byleth came up with an outfit she could be proud of. That was, until she looked at her reflection in the bathroom mirror and saw a tired, bony woman wearing an outfit that looked like it’d been ripped out of a scene kid’s closet, not her own. “I can’t show my face to Hilda—or Claude—like this,” she realized, tugging at the topmost shirt she’d put on. “Maybe I’ve got a dress or something I can wear instead.” Back to the drawing board she went, keeping the leggings because they felt stylish and ditching everything else.

What she re-entered the bathroom wearing minutes later was a miniskirt and tank top combination that felt much more promiscuous than it really was, with the top of the shirt clinging to her chest and making it seem larger than it was. “I guess this’ll work,” she decided, spinning in front of the mirror to check herself out, before she grabbed a hairbrush and began ripping through the rat nest that had developed in parts of the underneath of her hair. She winced and screamed a few times as she made progress in neatening things up, but she wasn’t going to be able to get all of the tangles situated in such a short amount of time. Those scissors came back in handy as she ultimately cut out the most noticeable and painful knots that she couldn’t break through, but since they were all on the underside of her thick hair, the chance that any attention would be called to the cut job was slim to none.

When she was finally finished she wasn’t fully satisfied with how she looked, but she was definitely feeling better about herself than she had been when she’d first realized she needed to get ready. Her appearance was something that would have mortified her father if he was around to see it, but Byleth came to terms with the fact that she wasn’t having to play the part of perfect daughter anymore, and she could dress in ways that Jeralt wouldn’t have approved of and go out looking how she wanted. It wasn’t an acceptance that she’d hoped she’d ever get to make, but it was the one that came to her while she was admiring her reflection in the mirror, before heading back to her room to grab shoes and a bag to carry her wallet and phone in.

Once she was certain she was ready to go, her feet led her to the couch, where she sat until a knock on the front door let her know that her ride had arrived. Just a day ago, she’d been dreading hearing a knock on her bedroom door, and now she was listening for someone to beckon her into the great outside world she’d so sorely neglected for so many years. The knock was forceful and shook her to her core, but after a deep breath and a final check that she had everything she’d need, she went to answer it, finding herself being tackled once the door was open. “You’re still you!” Leonie’s voice called out, muffled as her face was burying itself into Byleth’s shoulder. “I can’t believe this!”

“Who else would I be?” she asked in return, watching as Leonie pulled herself off and gave an apologetic bow of her head. “What a surprise that you got sent to get me. Wanted to see my father’s old place, hm?”

“Honestly, I hadn’t thought about that when I accepted the job, I was so wrapped up in getting to see you again! I guess this would be where Jeralt lived up until his death, wouldn’t it?” Byleth nodded, and Leonie did the same, accepting the silent answer as a valid one. “Well, that’s enough of that, I’d say. Come on, we’re going to be late if we just stand here catching up.”

It took an unusual amount of strength for Byleth to step outside the apartment and lock the door behind her, but she knew that she couldn’t back out any longer. She followed Leonie out to where she’d parked her car, and the first thing she noticed was that it wasn’t going to just be the two of them riding over to the party. “Whoa, it really is Byleth, isn’t it?” a loud voice yelled through the still-closed doors to the car, and she was able to look inside to see Caspar, much bulkier and built than he’d been before, pointing at her, with a half-awake Linhardt (who she could barely recognize, with his hair so long that it rivaled hers and his formal attire) trying to see if he was telling the truth.

“Sorry about this, you’re stop two of three before we get there,” Leonie explained, opening her driver’s side door as Byleth opened the one across from it, both ladies getting in to the sound of Caspar repeating his question over and over, until—“Yes! It is her, I told you this when we were driving this way, why didn’t you listen?”

“Sheesh, Leonie, no need to be so rude about things. I’m just so excited to see her alive and kicking, that’s all!” Pumping his fist into the air a couple times, Caspar definitely did seem to be as excited as he claimed to be, but all Byleth could muster in return for the enthusiasm was a small smile, a foreign sensation on her lips.

“You don’t have to make the last stop,” Linhardt yawned, stretching his shoulders as he did. “It would be for the best if you didn’t, really.”

Leonie turned the car on and began pulling out of the parking spot, as Byleth finished buckling herself in and preparing for a long ride to wherever this party was going to be. She laughed, “Can’t do that, Lin. Hilda would have my head if we didn’t stop and get everything she asked for. She gave us two hundred, so…”

“What are you talking about? What do you need two hundred of anything for?” Glancing over towards Leonie looking for an answer, Byleth saw the way her face lit up and expected the worst. “Come on, that doesn’t look very comforting.”

“Oh, you know, just some things to make the party as fun as it can possibly be.” Winking, Leonie heard Linhardt groan from the back, while Caspar gave a loud cheer, and she laughed again. “Sounds like someone’s ready to get their drink on, eh, Caspar?”

“I’ve been waiting for this since I woke up! It’s not every day we get to go to a party with the party king and queen, it’s going to be amazing!” Throwing both hands up and slapping the roof of the car a few times, Caspar seemed to be overjoyed at the prospect of having some drinks, but Byleth couldn’t find the excitement he’d located. She hadn’t thought about drinking in a very, very long time, since before her father had been killed, and she was worried that she was going to come face-to-face with some of his drinks of choice.

Her reservations were noticeable, which led to Linhardt begging for Leonie to think twice about making the purchases with Byleth around, which caused her to blurt out, “I’m fine with you getting alcohol while I’m in the car. We’re all legally allowed to drink it, that’s what matters most. Just because I’m not interested doesn’t mean everyone else can’t be.”

“I was trying to protect you,” Linhardt pointed out, slumping back into his seat and resisting snapping when Caspar began ribbing him at the failure.

Thinking for a moment, Leonie asked, “Is there anything you want me to pick up for you? This is all alcohol money, but if you want something specific I’ll get it and Hilda can just deal with it.”

“It’s not that I want anything, it’s that I don’t want…” Byleth’s voice trailed off as she realized it had been so long since she’d last thought about her father’s preferred drink that she couldn’t remember what it was called. “Whatever it was that Father drank. I’m sure you know what that was.”

“Can’t say that I do, but I’m sure we weren’t planning on getting it anyway so I think you’re good. Sure you don’t want anything at all?” It felt strange to Byleth that Leonie didn’t know what the drink in question was, but she shook her head and left things right there. They arrived at the liquor store a little while later, Leonie and Caspar both getting out of the car to go inside and make the purchases, which left Byleth and Linhardt waiting for them to return. She could have tried to talk to him, but the soft sound of snoring from the backseat let her know that he’d fallen asleep at some point, and so she had no one to talk to but herself.

Thankfully, the drink run was relatively quick and painless, although the two came back with their arms overflowing with different bottles and packages, piling it all into every available space in the car before they were driving away once more. The rest of the trip was spent with them bantering about how much fun they were going to have at the party, but no mention of who else was going to be there was made and it began to eat at Byleth’s mind. She’d agreed to come to the party because Hilda invited her (and because she knew Claude was going to be there), but outside of the other three people in the car she had no idea who else was invited. Based solely on the amount of alcohol they’d purchased, it seemed safe to assume that there’d be more than just the six of them, but nothing was guaranteed with these people and she didn’t want to make a mistake in assuming anything wrongly.

Her intuition turned out to be correct, but she was made to immediately wish it wasn’t. The house they drove up to was swarming with cars, causing them to park at a decent distance from the sprawling house that acted as their destination. “Come on, everyone help carry something,” Leonie said once she’d opened the trunk and started pulling out drinks, revealing that she’d already had some in there before buying anything. “Caspar and I can’t carry this all on our own.” Linhardt did not seem thrilled to have to carry anything, and Byleth wasn’t really excited about it either, but they offered up space in their arms and hands to take everything up into the house.

The front door was propped wide open with balloons and banners decorating it and everywhere around it, which gave Byleth flashbacks to the attempted decorations at the dance that last night she’d been with everyone. If anything, Hilda had gotten better at going all-out with how a place looked when she was throwing a party. Into the kitchen the four went, traversing a long hallway with Leonie at the head of the group, her knowing the way and not being held back by carrying more than she should have been (which was the case with Caspar). It was in there that they found Hilda, standing in front of a giant table covered in plastic cups waiting to be used. “Oh my goodness, you really did use all of that money, didn’t you?” she asked, seeing Leonie’s haul first before she saw anyone she was with. “Good thing we have plenty of ice, people are going to be drinking good tonight.”

Leonie nodded, setting down everything in her hands on the floor in front of the table before stepping aside so everyone else could get to the drop-off location. “I thought the party didn’t start until later, so seeing everyone’s cars here threw me for a loop. You tell me the wrong time for this?”

“Ha, nope! Everyone walked down to the park to take advantage of the nice day out there, they’ll be back when it’s actually time to come in and get this party started! You’re totally welcome to join them, there’ll be no hard feelings if you do.” Hilda flashed Leonie a grin, and Leonie accepted the offer without any hesitation, disappearing out of the kitchen and the house as fast as she could.

“I’ll pass on the park,” Linhardt said, shaking out his hands now that he wasn’t carrying bags of liquor bottles in them. “I’m going to go find the closest couch and take a nap, since mine this afternoon was so rudely interrupted by being picked up for this event.”

Waving a hand to let him know his idea was fine by her, Hilda waited until he was gone before she spoke again, her eyes focused on Caspar and his wandering hands digging through the different bags and selections of alcohol. “You can be patient and wait until the party starts,” she told him, watching him sheepishly back away from the drinks with an ashamed, somewhat sly smile on his lips. “Be a darling, strong man and go set up the tables out in the living room, then get the chairs out and put those everywhere people might want to sit. I’m too delicate to do that sort of work, you know.”

Her wink went unnoticed by Caspar, who took her words at face-value and ran out of the room to complete the task, which led Byleth to remark, “You’ve got some sort of magical control over him, huh? That was rather smooth.”

“Aw, thanks! It’s just me working my goddess-gifted charms, which I’ve gotten super good at using the past few years. But no one really buys my schtick, other than Caspar, anyway.” Slowly looking at Byleth, Hilda’s face had erupted into the single largest smile she could manage by the time they’d locked eyes. “It’s so good to see you again, I couldn’t believe it when you said you’d come and you didn’t choose to bail out last-minute! It’s going to be an amazing night with you around, Byleth!”

“I…don’t know if I can say I agree with you on that, but I’ll make it the best I can.” Byleth’s response was subdued, not because she thought she wasn’t going to enjoy herself, but rather because she found her eyes slipping from Hilda’s face and onto her choice of clothing, which was revealing and left little to the imagination; had she been wrong to not ask about a dress code for the party? “Am I too underdressed right now?” she blurted out asking, freezing once the words had left her lips. “I can go home if I am.”

Confused at what had prompted the question, Hilda looked down at her own exposed cleavage before checking out Byleth’s more modestly-covered chest, before shrugging. “I mean, I’m just dressed in something I found in my closet, you look like you put more thought into your appearance than I did. I’d say you’re perfectly fine how you look.”

“Oh, okay, thank you.” She couldn’t remember, outside of that dance, ever seeing Hilda dressed in such a provocative way, but she wasn’t going to ask any further questions if there were no problems with the current attire. “So, what’s the purpose for this party today? I don’t remember if you told me one or not.”

“It’s holiday time, Byleth! I know you’ve been living under a rock for the past five years, but the world hasn’t stopped celebrating since you’ve been gone! Didn’t you notice all of the snowflakes and festive decorations I put up around here?” Pouting playfully, she managed to get Byleth to admit she’d seen decorations but hadn’t noticed specifically what they were. “Well, I’m sure you’ll get a great look at all of that stuff later when everyone’s here. My living room is covered in it.”

“Good to know,” Byleth said, beginning to feel the least amount of ease at being there she’d felt thus far. Had she known it was specifically a party for the holiday season, she would’ve declined; she’d yet to really celebrate anything holiday-related after Jeralt had been killed during that time of year, and she hadn’t prepared herself mentally for coming face-to-face with that on top of everything else.

Hilda noticed that she was just standing there, deep in thought, prompting her to ask, “Anything I can do for you, Byleth? You’re looking a little sad.”

As easy as it would have been to tell her that there was something she could do and get her back home, Byleth chose to not say anything at all, instead picking up one of the stacks of cups and counting them. “There’s this many people here?”

“About that many, yeah, I wanted to make sure everyone could get a couple different cups if they decide they want to drink different things. Just being a mindful party host, it’s what’s right to do.” Humming softly to herself, Hilda walked around the table (showing Byleth that she was wearing a tight miniskirt that left very little to the imagination) and began reorganizing the drinks where they’d been set down, causing Byleth to awkwardly shuffle towards the kitchen door. “Oh, you’re going to head out? Caspar should be in the living room, it’s right across the hall, if you want to spend time with him instead!”

Not sure why that was the suggestion, Byleth turned and walked out without a word, ignoring the direction to the living room and taking a turn up the grand staircase instead, wanting to find somewhere quiet she could spend time. If Linhardt was allowed to go off on his own to take a nap, it made perfect sense to her that she be allowed to explore the house on her own. The upstairs hallway was covered in doorways, all of which were closed tightly and most locked, which meant Byleth couldn’t sneak inside and call one of those rooms her safe space, and the ones she could open were bathrooms.

“Why does one woman need so many bathrooms?” Byleth grumbled in frustration after opening up a third on that floor alone. “I don’t think Hilda needs nearly as much space as she’s got here, it’s almost excessive.” She knew that a bathroom could make for a great place to chill out and vent her upset thoughts, but the chance that someone walk in on her made her think twice about it.

Coming to the end of the hallway, she was faced with a choice that split off into two different directions, one of which had pink curtains down at the end and the other having what were undeniably yellow curtains. Looking at the color fondly, remembering that Claude was always clothed in it when she’d get to see him, she chose that route and continued checking every doorway she passed until she got to the last one, right by the yellow-draped window.

It was there that her heart, which had been racing and ready to burst at everything that had already happened, hit its grand crescendo and nearly leapt out of her chest. The door hadn’t been locked and she was able to open it, expecting a bathroom, but what she saw inside made her mouth go dry and her whole body tingle with the sense that she should not have been where she was. Hanging on the wall directly across from where she was standing was a colorful map of Almyra, and when she was able to peel her reluctant eyes off of it she was met with a yellow bedspread, clothes scattered everywhere that were definitely men’s clothes, and the final nail in the coffin was the class picture of the Golden Deer, slapped above a mirror that faced the bed.

This wasn’t just _some room_ she’d walked into. This was Claude’s room. At Hilda’s house. And she, having come to terms with the fact that she wanted to spend time with him again, was going to have to accept that maybe there was more going on between those two than she’d been told.

* * *

One of those many bathrooms had served Byleth well as a place to let out her newfound anger at how she’d been tricked into coming to a party under the impression she’d get to reconnect with someone who’d cared so deeply about her before, only to find out that he was living with one of their mutual friends. Not only was he living there, but he was almost certainly romantically entangled with her, and where would that put Byleth in things? She wasn’t going to break someone up for her own selfish gain, but some forewarning to the arrangement would have been appreciated.

Tears were rolling down her cheeks, burning hot against her already-warm cheeks. Everyone had known about this before she had, and that included the three she’d ridden over with. It felt like a betrayal that Leonie wouldn’t say a thing, although she couldn’t fault either of the others for it because she hadn’t known them as well. Her breathing was shaky as she would occasionally remember how bad of a situation this was and she’d gasp suddenly, causing her whole body to have to stutter for a few seconds to offset the air. Of all the things that could have happened to her in her grand reappearance into the social world, this was definitely the worst one, and now she had to convince herself that nothing was wrong so that she could make it through the night and get back home to reclusive safety once more.

Once her tears dried up, although she was still noticeably upset, she washed her cheeks in the sink and headed out of the bathroom, not realizing how long she’d been away until she heard more voices downstairs than there had been before. “I’m so beyond ready to chug until my body can’t chug anymore,” Raphael’s deep voice announced, earning him cheers from whoever he was talking to. “Tonight’s going to be nothing but a blur when I wake up tomorrow, that’s for sure.”

“And that’s why we’re not planning on anyone leaving tonight,” Hilda replied, laughter following her sentence, which made Byleth feel worse about everything. She wanted to leave as soon as she could, and no one was going to stop her from doing that, not even a truth-changing party host. “All the bedrooms upstairs are set up for people to crash in. Air mattresses and clean sheets and everything.”

Closing the bathroom door behind her as she tried to make her way downstairs, Byleth found herself being spotted by someone coming up the staircase at that exact moment, baby blue hair tied up into looping braids and eyes wide with surprise at who she saw on the upper floor. “I wasn’t aware you were going to be here tonight! What a lovely shock!” Her voice much more confident than it had ever been before, Marianne seemed to be so happy to see Byleth there. “I do hope you’ll come spend time with me this evening, I’m not one for drinking much and that seems to be everyone’s plan.”

“Only if you’ll take me home after.” Byleth covered her mouth, embarrassed to have actually said that in front of an old friend, but Marianne smiled and said she would, even though she’d just have to come back to the house that night. “I volunteered to babysit everyone who needs some extra care overnight, knowing everyone they’ll be quite drunk and some people are incapable of following limits.”

“That’s fair, thanks for being willing to take away time from them for me.” Marianne nodded and the two passed each other by in the hallway with a gentle bump of the shoulders, before Marianne headed into whichever room was her destination and Byleth snuck down the stairs. She could tell that everyone who was there was gathered in the living room, so perhaps diving into the kitchen would be her wisest idea, but the chance of people being in there was too high, so down the hallway the other way she went. This led her to a second entrance to the living room, as well as the dining room and a second living space that was decorated in the festive banners and balloons that Hilda had been talking about. Not only that, but there was a long ping-pong table set up, in addition to a plastic tarp covering the floor. “I think this might be safe, for now, unless—”

“Holy shit, is that you, Byleth?” The cursing caught her by surprise, as she spun around to face whoever had called out at her like that, and the first thing she saw was an angry hand backhanding Sylvain’s chest as she stared in disbelief at her. “It feels like I’m staring at a ghost, can you blame me for being a bit vulgar right now?”

“She’s not an animal for you to be leering at,” Ingrid reminded him, giving him a second solid smack before bouncing forward a few steps, her bangs bobbing with her. “It’s great to see you again, Byleth. Things just weren’t the same after you left, but now you’re back and it’ll be like nothing ever changed. That…is the plan, right?”

Since she wasn’t sure what the plan was any more, she did not answer, leading Sylvain to look at Ingrid as if she’d caused the silence, before jumping forward with his own idea. “Well, like she said, great to see you again, you’re looking as fine as always, but I didn’t come down here to catch up with you. Came down here to see where Hilda set up her games she wants us to play while we’re here.”

“There’s definitely a game in there, looks like ping-pong,” Byleth offered helpfully, to which Sylvain nodded and turned back from where he’d came, Ingrid holding out her arm to stop him from escaping too far. When he hit the arm he turned back around to see Byleth staring at him, her mouth slightly opened at the display she’d just seen. “Did you not want to see it for yourself?”

“I don’t think questioning you is necessary, there’s no reason why you’d be lying to me about things, and I need to get a team together to play before everyone else steals the good players.” He shot her a finger gun before ducking down to escape Ingrid’s trap, leaving the two women down the hall by themselves.

Sighing as she watched him retreat back to where everyone else was, Ingrid gave him a few seconds to choose to come back (which he did not) before she was turned back towards Byleth, who still didn’t know what was going on. “Some guys never grow up, I suppose,” she said, flipping her twisted hair over one of her shoulders. “They’re still so immature, the whole group of them. Wanting to play beer pong? Seriously?”

“Is…that what this in here is for?” Byleth looked back in the room at the otherwise innocent table, which she’d thought was there for some harmless fun, as Ingrid told her that it was the case. “I guess I know where I’ll be avoiding tonight, if this is where the ‘guys’ will be playing their silly game.”

“You have such a solid head on your shoulders, I totally agree with you on that.” Holding out an arm towards Byleth, Ingrid waited until she’d taken her hand before walking her back to the rest of the party. “Come on, let’s go get a group of sensible ladies together to have a nice, peaceful conversation bridging the time you’ve been gone.”

That plan lasted for as long as it took for them to get back to the living room, as the moment the sounds of everyone chanting to swallow something picked up, Ingrid had forgotten all about her kind offer as she wanted to take part in whatever game they were playing was. It left Byleth standing there, without anyone to hide behind or cling to, as everyone focused more on the eating contest that Ingrid was forcing her way into, which gave her just enough time to come up with a way to escape.

Her eyes had began to shoot towards the front door of the house when an arm found itself wrapped around her shoulders, pulling her into a sweet-scented body waiting for it. “It’s wonderful to see you here,” Dorothea’s voice said, pulling Byleth closer into her freshly-curled hair. “I was quite surprised when Hilda said you were around, but here you are, exactly as she said you were.”

“I was just looking around,” she explained, waiting until Dorothea let go of her before she said anything further. “It’s wonderful to see you too, though. I wasn’t expecting to have you hug me like this, though.”

“The surprise was unintentional, my dear.” Giggling, Dorothea blocked her mouth with the back of her hand for a moment, to muffle the sound, before she dropped it and grabbed Byleth forcefully by the arm and dragged her into the living room, weaving her in between people until she found a couple of empty seats, flanked on both sides by people staring at who Dorothea was bringing with her. “Look who I’ve found to join us,” she chirped, letting go of Byleth’s arm just long enough for them both to sit down, the others all leaning in to get a piece of conversation. “It’s our good friend Byleth from the Three Houses days!”

“What a loving surprise!” Petra said, clapping her hands together happily. “I am very much thankful to get to speak with you again, Byleth. How are things?”

Trying not to look at who was on the other side of her, Byleth put all of her focus on Petra and replied, “Things are good, I suppose. I’m here, aren’t I? That must mean good things.”

“I would agree!” Beaming, Petra leaned back in her seat. “This is going to be an amazing evening, I can tell just from this.”

“It’s great that we can just sit here and relax like this, while everyone else does their thing,” Dorothea remarked, giving a side-eye towards the eating contest that was still going on with everyone else on the other side of the room. “Isn’t that right, Mercedes?”

The person that Byleth had been trying to ignore spoke when she heard her name be brought up. “Definitely, it’s been so long since all of us ladies could just sit together and have a lovely conversation, I’ve sorely missed this. I haven’t even been able to have this recently, with you two being away and all.”

“Hold on, you’ve been away?” Byleth asked, broadening her gaze to both Dorothea and Petra, who were both nodding. “I need to hear about this. Where did you two go? Was it far? How long were you gone?”

Over the next few minutes, Byleth was treated to an abridged explanation about the adventures the two had been having in the past five years. Dorothea’s time had been spent back in the Adrestian capital Enbarr, performing nightly at the world-renown opera house they had there, while Petra had gone home to Brigid to take care of some family matters and spend time in her home country while she had nothing else going on. Every so often, while they were discussing their actions, Mercedes would chime in with events that had occurred around Garreg Mach, even though none of them were directly tied to the monastery itself anymore or had been for a long time. It was all exciting to hear about, although it made Byleth wish she hadn’t disappear for so long without any sort of contact, because hearing what had gone on in everyone’s lives was interesting.

She had to hold her tongue about asking about the relationship between Claude and Hilda, though, because she didn’t want to be overheard or be revealing some deep secret they’d been trying to keep. “And that’s about it, really,” Dorothea finished, throwing her head side to side at the conclusion. “I would ask about what you’ve done in the time, but I think we all know that’s better left unsaid.”

“Are you ladies really going to just sit there and not partake in everything going on?” Caspar asked with the remnants of some of the food from the contest stuck in his hair, talking over Byleth if she’d wanted to say anything right then. “We’re just about to break out the drinks, and I know at least one of you has a taste for something a bit fancy.” That was directed at Dorothea with a wink, which she returned as she stood up, waving for the other three to come with her, and while Petra did, Mercedes and Byleth stayed right where they were.

“It feels like forever since I dolled you up in the club bathroom,” Mercedes lamented, reaching over and putting a hand on Byleth’s thigh. “I’ve missed being able to talk to you, I really have. Shall we catch up, just you and I?”

“I don’t know what else there is for me to say,” Byleth admitted, feeling rather useless in the moment. She was given an out from the conversation when someone was calling for Mercedes, only for a much older-looking Ashe to poke his head around the corner, smile at Byleth, and ask for Mercedes to come help him with something. Unable to turn him down, Mercedes was soon gone and that left Byleth there in the clearing-out room without anyone else to talk to.

Her biggest wish right then was for there to be some sudden emergency that would justify her slipping out into the evening air without so much as a goodbye, but she knew that she wasn’t going to get so lucky. Everyone she’d talked to had been so nice so far, but she was dreading when she found Claude and had to face him, knowing what she knew. The last thing she wanted was for him to lie to her about what was going on, especially since she’d seen his room in her house and knew he was living there, something that couldn’t be denied no matter how hard he tried.

“You’re still in here?” Byleth turned to see who was talking to her, to find a woman she wasn’t familiar with standing in the doorway, a plate of food balanced on one hand and a drink of some sort stuffed into her cleavage. “I wasn’t expecting to see anyone over here when I came in, how interesting. My name’s Hapi, mind if I take a seat with you?”

Despite knowing the three chairs had been previously occupied, Byleth assumed that at least one of them would not be coming back as she said, “Uh, not really. I’m not expecting too many people wanting to talk to me.”

“Thanks, I’ve heard a lot about you from the gang. You’re the one whose dad was killed protecting the archbishop at the academy, right?” Hapi held back no punches with her questions, not even fully seated when she dropped the big one on Byleth, which she got a solemn _yes_ in response to. “Interesting, I’ve been waiting for the day I get to meet you. I’m a friend of some of your friends, but I was invited here tonight by someone who didn’t even show up. How silly is that, right?”

“I’d guess it’s pretty silly.” Byleth hadn’t seen everyone who was there, so she couldn’t guess who wasn’t around, but it didn’t stop her from asking about it anyway. “Who invited you, so I know who not to look for?”

“Good ol’ B. Which is a shock, because there’s a lot of lovely ladies here that he could get his hands on if he’d just show up.” Cue Byleth staring blankly at Hapi, unsure of who that was she was referring to. “Balthus? He’s talked about you before, I’ve heard as much about you from him as I have from Freckles and Linny and Didi and—”

“I don’t know anyone by any of those names.” Balthus was someone she vaguely remembered, from the dance where he’d been trying to hit on her, but none of those other nicknames resonated as ones she’d heard be used before. Getting the real names out of Hapi was like pulling teeth, but eventually she was able to get the information out and she knew who was being spoken of, which led to another problem. “Is Dimitri even here tonight?”

Tapping her bottle with her fingers before grabbing it to remove it from her chest, Hapi shrugged. “I haven’t seen him. Last I heard he chooses to stay home rather than come to these sorts of events, but that might not be the truth. Unreliable narrators and all.”

“I’ll have to ask if anyone else knows what’s going on there, then.” Byleth reached into her bag, which she’d refused to set anywhere, and grabbed her phone, jotting down the note to look into what was going on with Dimitri sometime. “Thank you for coming to talk to me, you seem like a very sweet person.”

“I’m as sweet as I need to be.” Taking a sip of her drink, Hapi quickly lost interest in the conversation, not even picking it back up when Dorothea and Petra came back to take their seats. Now that she could see everyone else eating and drinking, Byleth got up and went to get something of her own, hoping that it would be cleared out and she wouldn’t have too many people to contend with.

Her hopes were dashed when she entered the kitchen and the first thing that happened was Raphael spotting her and hoisting her up onto his shoulder, where she would have hit the ceiling if it wasn’t so high above her head. “Did you ask before you grabbed her?” Ignatz asked him, looking disapprovingly at his friend who quickly set Byleth back down on her feet. “I’m going to guess you didn’t.”

“Didn’t think I’d need to,” he replied, chuckling as he put his hand on the top of Byleth’s head, easily enveloping most of it. “Sorry, Byleth, I just got so excited when I saw you coming in here.”

“I never would have guessed you’d be here today,” Bernie said from the other side of the kitchen, putting some food on a second plate that clearly was not her own. “Not after how you were when I saw you yesterday. It’s nice to see you again, though, it really is.”

“You too, Bernie, it’s nice to see you again too.” She felt so strange in there, with one giant hand on her head and two people watching it happen. “Can I get my own food without an audience, please? I’m sure your friends want you to go back to wherever they are.”

Raphael lifted his hand and apologized, and as he left Ignatz and Bernie carried two plates each to follow him. “You handled that rather well, wouldn’t you say?” another voice asked, and Byleth, annoyed at how she was being surprised by just about everyone, turned to see Felix standing against the wall, watching her with a flat expression. “If I were you, they’d all have been sorry for messing with me.”

“Some things never change, huh? Good to see you’re just like you used to be,” she told him, grabbing a plate and looking at her wide variety of food options, while Felix scoffed and stepped away from the wall. “I think Sylvain was trying to find you for some game he wants to play, did he ever manage to do that?”

“Yes. And I turned him down. I’m not going to subject myself to something that disgusting when I could easily just watch him make a fool of himself.” Shaking his head, Felix watched Byleth putting some things on her plate for a moment before heading for the doorway. “As a word of warning, don’t eat anything that looks like it was made in a barn. That’d be because it wasn’t made by people who actually know _how_ to cook, you’d be better off eating dirt than tasting that.”

“I’ve been eating food prepared by Alois for years, I think I can survive off of amateur dishes.” It was then that Byleth realized she hadn’t seen Dedue around, which meant that he wasn’t there sharing his culinary gifts with everyone else, but before she could ask Felix about him (or Dimitri), he was out of the kitchen and she was left there by herself, hearing the sounds of the party once again raging in the living room without her.

If she was going to make her escape, this was going to be the time, when everyone was distracted with doing things that weren’t bothering her. She still didn’t know how she was going to get home if she left right then, but calling Alois and letting him know she needed a ride home was a valid option, and she knew he’d do it unless he was incredibly busy. But based on the fact that there was a party in the first place, the chances of him having something holiday-related to take care of up at the monastery were pretty high. That meant she’d have to walk home from an unfamiliar place, unless she found Marianne and begged her to take her back right then.

The time she spent contemplating her options was wasting her opportunity, and she realized it the moment she heard bells jingling towards the kitchen. Now effectively trapped, she finished filling her plate and went to where she’d found Felix hiding in the first place, hoping that she wouldn’t be noticed when whoever was coming her way entered. If he could feel comfortable over there, there was no reason she wouldn’t be able to as well. Whoever was coming her way was a mystery to her, she hadn’t heard any names called and she was certain that everyone she’d already seen that day wasn’t wearing loud bells, and all she could do was hope that maybe it was Balthus deciding to show up later rather than never.

He definitely would have been a more appreciated sight than the one that came into the kitchen, wearing an all red-and-white costume that looked to be smothering. For a moment, Byleth didn’t know who it was she was staring at, until they turned and she could see the darker skin underneath the rim of the fluffy hat he had on, as well as his deeply tanned hands that she would recognize on sight. “Whoa, Byleth, wasn’t expecting to see you in here,” he said to her, nodding his head to show that he recognized her in return. “Don’t go telling the others that Hilda got me into this ridiculous costume, will you?”

“I’m sure everyone would understand that your girlfriend could get you to wear anything.”

Taken aback by her spiteful tone, Claude ripped the hat off of his head and threw it onto the ground, revealing his whole, rugged face, including a dusting of facial hair that he’d never had in his youth. “Girlfriend?” he repeated, confused by the use of the word. “Where did you get that from? If there’s anyone here I want as a girlfriend, it’s definitely not her.”

“Save your breath, I’m not going to buy it,” she snapped, watching his expression grow even more confused, narrowed eyes and agape mouth. “I’ll be on my way out of here, and don’t worry, your secret’s safe with me. They’ll all see you soon enough anyway.” Feeling justified in her angriness, Byleth left the kitchen with the plate of food she’d gathered, hearing Claude call after her as she stormed down the hall. That sense of being right drained from her soul the moment she got to the entrance to the living room and saw Hilda—who she’d definitely just accused of being with Claude—sitting on Caspar’s lap, running her hand up and down his arm while he was telling some story to everyone else.

At once, she knew she’d made a big mistake, and she wasn’t sure if fixing it was going to be easy; a second later she’d made a second one when she turned to run back and found herself slamming her full plate right into the center of Claude’s costume.


	7. Chapter 7

The stunned silence that she fell into as she jumped back and watched her formerly-full plate fall to the floor, remnants of its food coming off of what Claude was wearing in clumps, was overridden by his almost defeated sigh, as he raised a hand to brush himself off fully before heading back towards the stairs. She could do nothing more than watch him go, unable to bring herself to explain why she’d been so wrong or why she’d turned when he came up behind her, but soon Marianne was there at her side, looking almost as stunned as Byleth herself. “Don’t worry, I can clean this up for you,” she said, giving Byleth a shaky, but confident smile. “Go take care of yourself.”

Nodding although she didn’t know what there was for her to do, Byleth’s feet carried her off towards the staircase, where she could hear Claude up on the upper floor running down to his room. She took in a deep breath before ascending, hoping that if anyone tried to follow Marianne would stop them in their tracks, and when she got to the top she saw the hall was absolutely empty, just as it had been most of the time she’d been up there before. Claude’s room was her end goal, and she wasted no time getting there, finding the door closed and locked when she arrived. The only thing that stopped her from knocking was the conversation they’d just had, her accusations of him dating Hilda enough to sour their attitudes towards each other.

Right as she calmed her nerves enough to be able to raise her hand to the door, it opened up underneath it, and Claude was standing there, his eyes looking down at her raised fist. “What, you want to uppercut me now?” he asked, a tense tone in his voice. “I thought better of you, Byleth, you never seemed like the kind of woman to make assumptions based on literally nothing.”

“Look, I might’ve jumped the gun on that one,” she replied, lowering her fist, but opening her palm to gesture towards the room he was still standing in. “But look at the prime evidence I had going for me. A room at her house? Really?”

Claude’s eyes narrowed as he looked back over his shoulder for a second, turning back to face Byleth with his eyebrows completely furrowed. “It’s a matter of convenience, because Hilda’s been here for me when I’ve needed her. More than you can say, hm?” Almost instantly he took that back with his head violently shaking. “No, no, I know that wasn’t appropriate, you’ve had your reasons for not being around and I’ve had mine for leaning on Hilda—or, more specifically, Holst and his money, but Hilda’s the one handing it over.”

“And I’m not exactly sure why you want me to believe that, but I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt and…I don’t know, believe it, I guess?” There were mixed feelings running through Byleth’s mind as she processed what Claude was telling her, wanting to trust his word but also knowing how bizarre it would be if she did. “It doesn’t explain why you’ve got your _own room_ here, but it’s a start.”

His expression had been relaxing since he’d first told her that he was there on Hilda’s brother’s dime, but at her insistent refusal to listen he tensed right back up. “Now’s not really the time to get into why I’m living at Hilda’s place and not somewhere on my own, not when we’ve got a party to get back to. Sure, I was supposed to be wearing that stuffy costume to appease Hilda, but she gets it that accidents happen and she’d rather me wearing something clean than what you did to that thing.”

“Appease Hilda, huh?” Once again Byleth felt like Claude was digging himself a hole that he had no way of getting out of, but his sly smile that appeared on his lips was telling enough that there was quite the story behind his choice of words. “Let me guess, you want to tell me about what you owe her but you won’t tell me why you’re living here?”

“One of these is a fun story, the other not so much,” he replied, stepping out of his room and coming within a hair’s width of where Byleth was standing, towering over her as he pulled his door shut behind him. “But I’m not telling either story right now, that’s for sure. Ready to head back down with me?”

Her chest rising and falling as she took in deep breaths with Claude so close to her, Byleth was overcome with a sense of longing she’d never felt before, and without thinking much of it she let out a sigh, coming off much dreamier than she’d intended for it to. He’d heard it without a doubt, looking at her with his smile ticking upward on one side before he winked, lightly patted her shoulder, and passed her by to go back to where the party had gathered. As she watched him go, she felt her heart and stomach both aflutter, and she cursed herself for her behavior thus far, chalking up her stupid mistake to an awkwardness around people rather than anything else, and her ineptitude in talking to Claude to something she wasn’t quite sure of. While she followed him down the hall and the stairs, she couldn’t help but look at his almost intimidating form as it moved, his broad shoulders and tall posture things he’d fully developed in their time apart. She’d even noticed when they’d been staring at each other’s faces that he’d let facial hair grow along his jawline, not just the dusting she’d seen when they’d been in the kitchen.

One thing was for sure, Claude had grown up over the past five years, and Byleth was genuinely sad she’d missed out on watching it happen. Yes, everyone else had grown up too, and she could’ve been around for all of them if she’d been able to pull herself out of her depression sooner, but the one she was most distressed about missing was the one she was following back down to where the rest of the people were gathered. Halfway down the staircase Claude stopped walking and Byleth nearly ran into him, only stopping because she realized that he wasn’t continuing on, and he moved over to the other side, holding out his arm for her. “Come on, let’s go in together. Show everyone that we’ve got no hard feelings between us and all that, they’ll get a kick out of it.” She swallowed down all reservations she had towards the offer and stood beside him, letting that arm wrap around her shoulders and hold them tightly, tenderly, completely different than he ever would have during their time at the Three Houses Club together.

“I can’t believe we’re going to actually do this,” she murmured as they finished descending the stairs and went right into the party hub, where a resounding cheer went up at their presence, everyone smiling and looking in their direction at the display. She didn’t know how she was supposed to react in such a moment, but Claude seemed to have been rehearsing for it all his life with his dramatic bows and winks and grins at everyone who was showering him with attention. That, or he was feeling just as awkward about it as she was, and he was doing what he did best and playing that awkwardness off as well as he could.

“I’m glad the two of you have gotten to reconnect so quickly,” Hilda said, pushing Caspar off of her lap so that she could stand up, him hitting the floor with a loud thud before he was scrambling to get back up as well. "Here I was thinking that poor Byleth was going to be oh-so-lonely all night because she didn’t have a date or anyone to hang on all night, because someone was supposed to be our holiday red guy and would be busy.” Her eyes landed on Claude’s definitely not costumed upper half, which he shrugged at. “Guess it all works out, but you owe me for not following through with your promise.”

He gave her a knowing look, reading right through what she was saying. “You saw what happened to it, I can’t be held responsible for Byleth’s clumsiness causing her to run her plate right into me.” That was when he remembered what she’d been holding when they’d made contact, and he immediately turned to look at Byleth and her blank stare back at him. “You’re still hungry, aren’t you? I guess I forgot that you’d been preparing to eat when all that started, do you want to go get something or are you good for now?”

“Food wouldn’t hurt,” she replied, wanting to escape everyone’s watching eyes as she couldn’t break from Claude’s embrace, and he quickly led her out of the room, them both hearing Hilda and several others resume their cheering (with some wolf-whistles added in) before they’d rounded the corner into the kitchen. Once they were in there alone, he let go of her and grabbed her a new plate, while she sighed, running her hands over her legs to calm herself down. “Okay, Claude, I don’t know what you’re planning now, but can we not get all that attention on us when we go back? I’m not exactly comfortable with all those eyes right now.”

“Yeah, see, you’re going to get all the attention in the world if you’re in there, whether you’re there with me or not, so why not play into it?” After she was given her new plate, which was exchanged after she’d accepted that he was speaking the truth, he was grabbing himself a drink and slamming it down as fast as he could, hands visibly shaking as he reached for a second. “I’m not enjoying it either, but I knew it was what I was in for the moment I heard you might be here.”

“And why’s that?” Noticing that he was drinking, and his choice wasn’t anything non-alcoholic so she knew there was going to be trouble, Byleth didn’t want to pull her attention off of him to get her food. There was something about being there with Claude that made her want her eyes on him at all times, and him using that time to start building towards getting drunk was not helping matters. “You’re going to explain yourself on that one, aren’t you? I’m not going to let you keep everything secret from me tonight.”

His second drink went down as fast as the first, the cups tossed into the trash one inside the other, as he grabbed at his hair and gave it a couple firm tugs. “Oh, no reason, just that I’ve been living with Hilda off and on since she left Garreg Mach and she knows exactly why just going to live full-time in Almyra wasn’t going to work out for me, so she’s been hoping that the person I’ve been living in Fódlan for happened to crawl out from under her rock and rejoin society someday. No big deal, if we’re being honest.”

The words hit Byleth hard, and she was thankful she hadn’t started grabbing food because that new plate hit the ground when her trembling hands couldn’t hold onto it any longer. “I…I’m the reason you’re living here with her?” she asked to clarify, making sure she’d gleaned the right information from that rather convoluted statement, and when he chuckled she knew she’d hit it right on the head. “Claude, why would you do something like that? That’s such a big decision to make, and for…me. I’m not worth that.”

“Trust me, the last time we saw each other I swore to myself that wouldn’t be the actual last time, and getting expelled from the academy trying to get your ban revoked—which, fun story there too, believe it or not—was not going to stop me from seeing you again. If it meant sacrificing my sanity to live with Hilda and her particular brand of gossipy-hen nonsense, it wouldn’t be too big a price to pay if it meant I saw you like this.” His conclusion was a grin, followed by reaching for his third drink, which he only didn’t grab because Byleth commanded that he didn’t. “Aw, what’s the matter, you won’t let me get drunk because I can’t handle what’s going on?”

“No, I want to spend time with you while you’re sober, if we’re being honest. I want to hear all about what I missed, and I don’t want you leaving out details just because you’re drunk and don’t remember them.” Bending down to grab her plate, Byleth watched him reconsider his motions before pulling his hand away from the cup he’d almost taken, and for as long as she was in there getting her food he kept away from the drinks, but couldn’t resist in taking one for the road when they went back to the living room. Re-entering the group didn’t come with all the fanfare it had the first time, and they were able to get a seat together on a couple of chairs against the wall without needing to push anyone out of the way.

The room was constantly crowded as people came and went, the only consistent thing being Hapi, Dorothea, and Petra in their one corner at all times, and as Byleth watched the three of them seemingly engrossed in their conversation, she remembered something she’d heard when she’d first spoken to Hapi. “Dimitri’s not going to be here, is he?” she asked Claude, who nearly choked on the water he was drinking at the moment when he heard her words. “Based on that reaction I’m going to assume not.”

“Alois really left you in the dark about all the nonsense happening up at Garreg Mach after you got kicked out, didn’t he?” he replied once he’d composed himself, having to set the cup aside so that he didn’t choke again. “I’m not sure if that’s the sort of story you want to hear while you’re here, but—”

“Claude, please!”

“—yeah, I figured I’d get that reaction if I thought about keeping it away. So you got kicked out and I wasn’t there much longer after you were gone, Rhea was sick of me protesting your unfair removal and she banned me from academy grounds as well.” Seeing Byleth’s jaw drop at the revelation was bittersweet for Claude, knowing that the event had happened five years prior and she was just learning about his so-called sacrifice for her now. “But whatever, without me there the Golden Deer needed their new leader and they couldn’t find one because no one wanted to step up and do it.”

“You catching Byleth up to speed on our lives?” Hilda called out from her chair in the corner, a rare moment when she was there alone. “Make sure not to mention you-know-who while you’re doing it, thanks!”

Mimicking her cadence with a couple head waggles, Claude continued on, “Okay, let me backtrack a bit and say someone _did_ want to step up and do it, but no one wanted him to and when Hilda wouldn’t back him up he got pissy and abandoned his friends. Whatever, it’s not important. Point is, from that moment the Golden Deer really weren’t any more at the Three Houses Club, and that was when big-headed Edelgard decided that she had the position and the power to become the de-facto leader of the club itself.”

“And how, exactly, does this play into Dimitri not being here?” Now, Byleth was pretty understanding that there were elements to the story she needed to understand other people’s exclusion from the party, but she wasn’t seeing the point to hearing about Edelgard getting power-hungry. “Come on, Claude, we’ve got all the time in the world after this to get into her story, I want to know about Dimitri!”

“Okay, long story short, he challenged her claims to power and she had Hubert cut him.” There was a moment’s pause when he caught Byleth giving him the most unbelieving look she could manage, and he couldn’t help but laugh. “I wish I was joking there, but I’m not. He quite literally cut Dimitri on her behalf, and naturally got them both removed from the academy for inciting violence. And even though he’d done nothing wrong, Dimitri got the boot as well, and he’s…not really been seen around much since, far as I’m aware.”

“That’s because he’s lost his mind thinking about getting back at Edelgard,” Sylvain called out, his voice slightly slurred from the drinks he’d been sharing with his friends. Ingrid and Felix were sitting on the floor in front of him, both looking to be just as out of it as he was, but neither of them seemed to be interested in backing up what he’d said. “Guy won’t even let us, friends he’s has since he was a kid, go to see him. It’s like…what the hell did we do to deserve that?”

“I don’t know,” Byleth answered, knowing that she wasn’t actually expected to say anything at all, “and that’s unfortunate for all of you.”

Claude shook his head, patting Byleth’s arm to make sure her attention was back on him. “So there you have it, that’s what’s going on with Dimitri. Anyone else you want to know about? Or did hearing that answer all the questions you have?”

“That’s all I’ve got right now.” Truly, Byleth would have loved to hear more about the fight that had broken up the formerly inseparable duo of Hilda and Lorenz, but she knew that approaching that topic where they were would be tricky. “How did everyone who Edelgard was close with handle her behavior? I mean, most of them are here, except…” She looked around, trying to remember everyone that had once sat at the Black Eagles table there in the club building. “Ferdinand? Is he the only one missing? Is that because he sided with her?”

“Traitorous scum, at least in Hilda’s eyes, and so he wasn’t invited. Nothing to do with Edelgard in the slightest, and all to do with…a certain someone else.” Claude handwaved it off like it was no big deal, and Byleth accepted that she wasn’t going to get details there, which meant that she was pretty well informed on what was going on with everyone she’d once cared about. “But enough about that, want to talk about more exciting things that happened after you and I both left? Or are you burnt out on this trip down memory lane?”

“I’d listen to more—” Byleth wanted to tell him that she was interested, but her sentence was cut off by the return of several muscular men into the room, carrying with them what looked to be a sleigh filled with different boxes and giftbags of assorted sizes. She gave a meek wave at Raphael, who about dropped his side of the sleigh when he saw Byleth waving, but he at least gave Caspar and Balthus enough time to set the thing down before he was rushing over to where she was sitting to stare down excitedly at her.

“I’ve gotta tell you, when we were bringin’ this in we were talking about how you probably wouldn’t have a gift in it, but Caspar insists you’ve got one waiting for you.” He was speaking breathlessly, his words overly energetic despite that fact, and Byleth’s face contorted into an expression of confusion as she listened to him. “It’s like a holiday miracle that Hilda knew you’d be here before even you did, huh?”

At the question, Claude snorted, which had Byleth turning her head to look at him just as confused as she’d been while Raphael was talking. “Pretty sure Hilda’s been holding on to the same gift for five years now, bud,” he explained, causing Raphael’s spirit to fall slightly while Byleth grew even more confused. “She’d wanted to give it to you back when everything was still chill, except then she couldn’t before you got banned and she couldn’t get Alois to do it for her. He always said she’d get the chance someday.”

“That’s really sweet to hear that she’d keep it for this long, but I wonder what it is.” Her eyes flittering towards the sleigh, Byleth could only begin to imagine what the gifts in there were for everyone, let alone for herself, but she knew the time to find that out would be upon her soon enough. All she had to do was wait for when Hilda said it was time to hand them out, then she’d know, and she’d be able to get out of there not long after. Yes, getting to reconnect with friends (and Claude) was nice, but she was socially burning out fast and she knew she wouldn’t last much longer.

* * *

Somehow, _not much longer_ turned into way longer than she’d expected, because the moment people began drinking more and things started to get wild, she knew she couldn’t leave and miss the excitement that would happen without her there. The presents were allocated but they were all forbidden from opening them until they were home, and to occupy her mind while she tried not to think too much about what she’d been handed in half-torn wrapping paper, Byleth had ended up moving to sit with Bernadetta and Ignatz to watch the fireworks beginning to go off between everyone else.

Even with how much everyone had been drinking, the “fireworks” amounted to the occasional argument that ended in laughter and a shared drink between the fighting parties, but it was still enough of a backdrop for the conversation going on towards the back of the room that occasionally they’d get distracted from what they were saying. “Usually it’s just the two of us sitting off to the side,” Ignatz said with a chuckle as he motioned towards Bernie with his shoulder, her nodding to confirm his words. “Not that we mind each other’s company, but…it’s nice to have you with us too, Byleth.”

“It’s nice to be here, I suppose,” she replied, catching a glimpse of Bernie’s smile as she knew that she was so proud to be the catalyst for her presence. “I didn’t expect everyone to quite act like this when I saw them again, though. These past few years really have changed everyone, haven’t they?”

It was a question that needed no answer, as the proof for it was sitting throughout the room around them. There were half-asleep people slumped back in their seats, spilled cups of various liquids covering the floor and laps of unsuspecting others, a couple of people had snuck off to do things of their own, and there was Balthus in the sleigh in the middle of the room, double-fisting what had to be a record amount of alcohol while several people around him cheered him on. “Parties like this remind us all that we’re here for each other,” Bernie declared after a few moments of watching what was going on in front of them. “It’s been rough for just about everyone since the club fell apart, so being able to get together like this is when everyone feels like they can relax.”

“Hilda’s done an amazing job hosting these every few months, just so that we can keep an eye out for anything bad happening to anyone else.” Grabbing his glasses to clean their lenses for a moment, Ignatz stared blankly in Byleth’s direction until they were replaced, her admittedly noticing how much he’d grown up and become more handsome than he’d ever been before in the time where he couldn’t properly see her. “I only wish that sometimes, just sometimes, she’d make them dry events so we can do things beyond exactly what we’re doing right now.”

Bernie gave a soft laugh at the idea, but Byleth knew that she didn’t have the knowledge of what typically happened at the parties to know if she could agree or not. “Marianne’s not drinking either, that’s something,” she pointed out, knowing that the blue-haired woman was around somewhere, just waiting to jump in to assist if anyone needed it. “And Claude…”

“Claude’s notorious for getting just as into the drinks as, say, Raphael,” Ignatz quickly stated, confused about where Byleth was going. “If you think he’s not drinking tonight, you’re bound to be mistaken.”

Looking around the room to see if she could see him, Byleth found no sight of Claude and began to suspect that perhaps Ignatz was right. “I’d asked him not to drink, so I figured maybe he’d listen to that request, but I suppose if it’s tradition it can’t be helped.” Deep down she really hoped that she’d been listened to, but all bets were off and she wasn’t going to let herself get hurt by Claude doing what he wanted.

A bellowing yell from across the room silenced all three of them and drew their attention over to where the sound had come from, which had been followed immediately with a chorus of raucous laughter and clapping. Somehow Sylvain had ended up flanked on all sides by ladies and was reveling in their attention, and it was Ingrid who’d yelled at him to get his attention away from half-clothed chests and back onto her, the other ladies all laughing when he’d sheepishly looked to his friend instead of them. “Things like that are why I don’t let myself drink,” Bernie admitted, turning her eyes back to her companions. “I just know that if I start getting drunk, Dorothea will swoop in and include me in all of her teasing that she does to Sylvain at these things.”

“Likewise, I stay sober so that I can be the one to get Raphael back into his bedroom in one piece.” His face going serious at what he’d just said, Ignatz stood up and shook out his legs. “I’ve gotten rather good at deadlifting him if he misses his bed when he falls asleep, but it really does a number on my knees and back for the following days.” After he’d limbered himself up suitably enough, he sat back down, making sure to not knock over any the non-alcoholic drinks they had sitting at their feet to sip on.

Byleth, having never been to a party where there were so many people drinking, wasn’t sure how to explain why she’d stayed away from the drinks without venturing down a path that she didn’t want to be on. “I’ve never been a drinker,” she chose to explain it as, even though all she could think about was Jeralt and Alois and their drinking nights that she’d sorely missed being around for. “Don’t really see that as being in my future.”

“You’ll come around to it,” she heard Claude say, and her eyes immediately shot to where he was standing in the second doorway to the room, what looked like water in the cup in his hand. “None of the liquor Leonie brought holds a candle to the stuff you can get outside of Fódlan, but we’re not exactly breaking out the expensive spirits tonight.”

“Please don’t tell me you’re drinking more,” she pleaded, jumping up and taking out all but one of Bernie’s cups with her feet as she leapt over to the door, where Claude reacted by holding his cup up above his head so that she couldn’t reach it. “What did I say earlier, Claude? Doesn’t what I say matter?”

“Calm down, it’s the first thing I’ve had since then, you’re overreacting if you think this is going to knock me off my feet.” Byleth didn’t quite believe him, but based on how he was speaking clearly (which could not be said for just about everyone else), she felt that he was at least clean enough to not be impaired in conversing. “I wanted to come check on you, since you’ve chosen to hang out with some old friends over me.”

Her eyes shifted as far as they could to try looking at the other two, but when she couldn’t see them she had to turn to see that they were both encouraging her to stick with Claude, even with them both now on the floor cleaning up the mess that had been made when she’d jumped up. “I think they’re telling me I should go with you instead,” she said, pointing out what was clearly obvious to anyone witnessing it. The look on Claude’s face when he heard that was one of delight, and he took Byleth’s arm in his hands and dragged her towards the kitchen before she could say anything more.

The scene in the kitchen was much different than it had been earlier in the night. Gone was the collection of cups for drinking, replaced with the bottles of different mixers and liquors for everyone to use as they pleased, and the food that had been so lovingly prepared was picked through and almost entirely gone. Marianne was in there, working on cleaning up dishes, and she was joined by someone with long orange hair who had been carrying some plates in her hands when she caught a glimpse of Byleth in there; the plates all flew in the air as Annette charged at her, grabbing her in a big hug that Claude barely got his arm out of the way of. “I heard you were here, but I guess I missed seeing you every time I was out in the room with everyone else!” she cried, squeezing Byleth tightly. “I’m so glad I get to see you! Did you get to see Mercie before she left?”

“I did, I spent some time with her and Ashe earlier.” At once Annette let go of her, putting on a deep pout and crossing her arms in front of her chest. “W-what’s with that reaction? Is there a problem with that?”

“There is! Neither of them mentioned that they got to talk to you before they left, I didn’t find out you were here until, well, until Claude said something about it just a bit ago!” Cue Claude giving Byleth a sly smile when she looked at him for answers, while Annette went back to helping with the kitchen cleaning. “Anyway, thanks so much for bringing her in here, that’s really made my night since my friends _totally_ bailed on me!”

Byleth took a couple steps forward to start helping Annette out, but Claude grabbed her arm once again and pulled her back into him, earning a confused look from her. “Hey, Marianne, if anyone asks where we are, let ‘em know we’re upstairs, will you?” He got a quick from his friend to show she’d heard him, and true to what he’d said Claude was heading up to the top floor right away, Byleth following behind because she was being dragged, not knowing what was going on but not exactly complaining that she was going to be spending time with Claude where no one else was.

He took her to his bedroom, letting her inside before closing the door behind them while he held his still-full cup in between his teeth, taking it and setting it on the top of his dresser once he could. “Do you usually take ladies you haven’t seen a while into your room like this?” Byleth asked, knowing that the scene she’d been brought into was something ripped straight from a trashy novel. “I’m not saying it’s a bad thing, but—”

“You wanted answers about things I wasn’t going to talk about earlier, but now I think that you’ve seen a bit more of how everyone’s coping with our lives, so you’re ready to know all the details.” He sat down on his bed and motioned for her to join him, which she did after hesitating over the fact that this really was what someone would find in some novel teachers would deem too scandalous to read in class, but at that point she knew that if she wanted answers, she had to do it.

Claude’s intentions really were pure though, with nothing devious or scandalous planned for their time in that bedroom together. He carefully, as chronologically as he could manage, recounted everything of note for Byleth that had happened since her banishment from Garreg Mach, fitting in all of the details he’d already told her where they fit as well. He talked at length about his time spent back home in Almyra, and about how he’d never felt like that was where he belonged but it was where his family was and where they wanted him to stay, as well as how he’d managed to get back to the town where all of his friends had stayed over the years after reaching out to Holst first, then Hilda at his insistence. There was a lot about what Edelgard and Hubert had done in their time being banished as well, which had been news-worthy had Byleth cared enough in her depression to look at it, and there was more about what had happened to Dimitri.

“In fact, I think he’s why Mercedes jetted out of here so early,” he concluded when he’d talked about how Dimitri had grown to be consumed with the need to get back at Edelgard for being responsible for damaging half of his face, rendering one eye completely useless. “I know that she visits him and Dedue every chance she gets, just to play mother hen with them, so that’s probably it.”

“I’ll have to ask if I can visit him sometime too, then,” Byleth decided, her voice strong as she felt like she was making an important choice right then. “He was my date to that dance, after all, he did mean something to me…even if that was only because you couldn’t be there.”

“No worries, I’d see him too if I could.” Claude clasped his hands together, looking into Byleth’s eyes with the faintest smile upon his lips. “You know, I don’t know how many times you’ve heard this in the past few years, but you’re quite attractive. I always thought back during our time together in the club that you were the best-looking woman there, hands down, but now that I’m older I feel like I can say it.”

She wasn’t sure how to react at the compliment, a smile feeling too fake to put on and there not really being anything else that felt appropriate in that moment. “Thank you, Claude, you’ve grown from a charming boy to a handsome and charming man, if that means anything to you,” she replied, breaking their eye contact to stare elsewhere in the room, feeling sparks begin to fly that she wasn’t confident she was ready for all of a sudden. That caused her to break, blurting out, “I’m sorry, but I’m not ready for you to kiss me, if that’s what you’re looking for.”

“What? No, come on, that’s not what I want from this.” There was a tone to his voice that seemed surprised to hear such a thing, but one look at Claude’s face made it clear that he’d been hoping they’d lean into each other and lock lips (at least, in Byleth’s mind anyway). “I really only wanted you in here to talk to you about everything, since if you’re going to hear it, you should hear it from me and as soon as possible.”

Still, even with that assurance she couldn’t bring herself to look Claude in the eyes again for quite some time, choosing to distract herself with everything he’d collected in his bedroom away from home. “I’m thankful you’re willing to spend this time apart from all of your friends to catch me up to speed on matters,” she said, shifting where she sat on the edge of the bed, “but don’t you think people are going to get suspicious about what’s going on?”

“Marianne’s got it under control, she’s not the meek girl you once knew anymore, she’ll set someone straight if they start assuming. Unless it’s Hilda, but at this point? She’ll be doing worse once the house is empty, she can make up any ideas she wants to about us.” Claude waved a hand, in the direction of where Hilda’s bedroom was. “I’m honestly surprised you haven’t tried digging more about that whole situation.”

Byleth blinked, not knowing why Claude would bring up such a thing. “I thought talking about it wasn’t allowed.”

“In her presence, but we’re in my room and she has no say on what I say in here. She’s only so touchy about it because she knows she’s stayed with Caspar this long because she’s using him as her ‘so there’ towards Lorenz.” At saying the name, Claude looked right towards the door and made sure it didn’t fly open for someone or something to smite him for what he’d done, and once he knew the coast was clear he laid back on his bed, relaxing with his hands behind his head. “That’s where their whole discord started, when she picked Caspar over him for the dance, and it only exploded once I was banned from the academy and he felt someone needed to be in charge and she wouldn’t let him be the one.”

“I guess that makes a lot of sense, but they always seemed so close…”

“Trust me when I say that they were only ‘close’ when they thought they had power. The moment that power was taken from them, they couldn’t bother caring about each other any longer. At least Hilda was able to come around to staying friends with everyone, but Lorenz?” Claude gave a shrug. “He’s better off galivanting around with Ferdinand and probably Edelgard and Hubert at this point, let’s be real.”

They talked for a while longer, moving away from discussing matters of the past and getting into talking about things that mattered where they were, specifically about what they were doing with their lives and time. Since Byleth had thrown everything she’d ever had away in her depression, she didn’t have much to talk about, but Claude was able to tell her all about the jobs everyone had acquired over time and that he didn’t really do much himself, minus sit there in his room and think about what there was he could do. “I’d do things if I could, but as someone who was expelled from Garreg Mach and not even from Fódlan, there’s not exactly a lot people want me for,” he admitted, still laying on his back with Byleth sitting next to him, her hand fidgeting with the ends of his long hair. “Guess we can try setting off into this crazy world together, see what anyone would hire a depressed college dropout and an ‘uneducated’ Almyran guy to do.”

“Wow, expecting me to just abandon my life to follow you wherever you go, I see the game you’re playing here,” Byleth teased, taking hold of his hair and giving it a firm tug, just hard enough to get him to look at her. “No, but getting away from this area might do me some good, I’ve gone absolutely nowhere since Father was killed and I’ve done nothing with my life since then. Alois is probably beyond tired of having to take care of me, him and his wife both, so they’d appreciate it if I went off with you for a while.”

“Sounds like someone’s eager to get her life started.” His reply came after looking at her for a few silent moments, as he thought about what he could say. “Not that I’m not eager myself, it’s been a long time waiting for you to come back.”

She slowly loosened her grip on his hair, as she felt her face warming up at the statement. “T-that’s silly, Claude, I know you weren’t waiting for me. You have all of your other friends, you didn’t need me back.”

“Oh, but I did, and I’m not going to let you go away again.” Once he knew her hand wasn’t entangled in his hair he sat up, hopping off the bed and making his way towards the door. “I’ll go let Marianne know you’re staying here overnight, just so that you don’t slip away without everyone knowing and then…who knows when I’d see you next. You can sleep in one of the spare rooms, and then tomorrow after this house has been cleaned up of everyone else who’s got to stay overnight, we can do something. Sound good?”

Byleth’s heart felt like it was about to jump out of her chest at just the idea of staying there that night, knowing what was going on outside those bedroom walls, and if others were going to be crashing there she didn’t want to be somewhere that they could walk in. “One condition and I’ll stay here,” she said, following him off the bed as he turned to watch her give her stipulation. “I sleep in here, with you. I’m fine with the floor, I just want to know I’m somewhere safe.”

“I’ll take the floor in that case, and you can have my spot. There, problem solved, let’s go tell Marianne so she doesn’t arrange for you to have a ride home.” He seemed rather eager to get out of the room to deliver the message, and Byleth was curious about why that was, but she didn’t ask him for fear of distracting him further from what he was trying to do. But when he opened his door and stepped out into the hallway, the defeated sigh he gave told her that something else was there to distract him anyway.

When she popped out of the room as well, she saw what had caught Claude’s attention: sitting against the wall that bordered the hallway down to Hilda’s room was Felix, looking annoyed at the world as he stared at who’d dared intrude on his sitting. “Wasn’t expecting to hear both of you come out of that room,” he grumbled, pushing strands of stringy, seemingly unwashed hair out of his pale face. “I’m trying to find somewhere comfortable to sleep and this was about all I could find.”

“There’s several bedrooms you could pick from,” Claude replied, trying to be helpful as he pulled his door shut around Byleth, as she was watching Felix with raised eyebrows. “Besides, didn’t it already get arranged that you, Sylvain, and Ingrid would be getting the bigger guest room for the three of you? What happened to that?”

“Look, I love those two even if they make me wish I was dead, but I’m not sharing a room with them tonight.” The cold tone with which Felix spoke showed he was serious and meant business, but neither Claude nor Byleth could understand why he was making such a statement until he explained his reasoning. “I was given the _floor_ between their beds, but they’re both so drunk that I’d be getting woken up all night because of them. I’m not spending my night holding back Ingrid’s hair, and I’m not having Sylvain wake me up begging me to get him water because he’s too scared to go downstairs and embarrass himself in front of the ladies. I’ll gladly take the hallway floor.”

“Nah, no reason for that. We’re bound to have somewhere downstairs you can sleep, or I bet Marianne could hook you up with a ride home if we can’t find you one.” Motioning for Felix to follow with them, Claude watched him stagger to his feet, showing that he wasn’t as far from being blackout drunk as he’d implied his friends were. “Byleth, mind following behind him in case he stumbles? Bet between the two of us we’d be able to catch him.”

“Sure thing,” she said with a nod, taking her place in line as they started walking. She’d never experienced seeing someone quite that drunk, not when her only times with people drinking had been with her father, and he’d always kept himself relatively sound.

When they were halfway down the stairs Felix stopped abruptly, reaching forward and grabbing Claude’s shoulder to support himself and let the leader know to stop moving. “I just remembered, you mentioned asking Marianne to give me a ride home. One, can’t do that, if I show my face in that house while I’m like this my father will never let me hear the end of it. Two, she’s already gone for the night, so we couldn’t ask her anyway.”

“Already…gone?” Claude repeated, hearing Felix spit something about how he hated having to say the same thing twice but that yes, she was gone. “I was under the impression she’d be running drunks home all night. Guess she got her work done earlier than expected?”

Felix didn’t give a response and instead let go of Claude’s shoulder so they could continue on, leaving them with less answers than there were questions to be asked. By the time they got down to the lower floor and into the living room, they could all see that there was very limited space available for someone to crash, every raised surface covered in some way. “It kind of looks like a giant sleepover,” Byleth remarked, looking at everyone’s sleeping (or in some cases half-awake and looking like death) forms as they crowded on chairs and the floor alike. “I’m glad I’m not part of this.”

“So happy for you,” Felix sarcastically replied, turning out of the room and causing the other two to follow him for the moment. “I’m guessing I’ll be stuck in the other room, or else it’s back up to the hallway for me.”

Them following him lasted only as long as passing the kitchen, as that was when Hilda came out at them, clearly plastered and barely cognizant of what was happening around her. “Oh my goodness, you’re both still alive!” she trilled, grabbing Claude in a surprise hug that had him stumble-stepping to keep himself standing. “I was so worried that you’d died because I hadn’t seen you at all! Where have you been?”

“Byleth wanted to catch up, so I took the time to get her up to speed on everything,” Claude answered, telling the truth but leaving out the detail of where the conversation had happened, for obvious reasons. “We came down to look for Marianne, but she’s already gone, according to Felix. What happened there?”

Backing off, Hilda’s dramatic pout was clear to them both. “She decided she was going to be a giant meanie and ruin my night, that’s what,” she slurred, swaying as she tried to be over-the-top with her delivery. “It wasn’t fair, Caspar wanted to stay over here, but she said he had to go home because Lin wanted out, and then she said she was going home, and I was like…but Marianne, if you’re taking Caspar home, you’ve gotta sleep in my room with me to keep me company!”

“Is this how she always gets when she drinks?” Byleth asked, leaning as close into Claude’s ear as she could manage given their height difference.

“Every single time,” he replied out of the corner of his mouth, before putting on a fake empathetic smile as he reached out to pat Hilda’s shoulder comfortingly. “I know it’s a bummer that you lost your possible bedmates for the night, but if you need it, I’m sure Felix is desperate enough for somewhere to sleep that he’ll fill the role.”

Down the hallway, with zero regard for the hour or the need for rest that everyone else had, Felix could be heard snapping, “I’d rather sleep in the cold than with her, when she’ll be throwing up more than everyone else.” Byleth certainly heard the remark and she found it amusing, but she didn’t know if Claude or Hilda had heard it as well.

It was easy to guess not when they both seemed unfazed by it, Hilda once again falling into Claude with her arms open for a big hug. “I’m just, like, so bugged by this. I thought Marianne had my back, you know? And now she’s going and ruining my happiness for tonight, like a big meanie.”

“I think we’re going to take you up to bed ourselves, so you can sober up and realize that she’s done you a big solid.” Claude glanced to where Byleth was to make sure she was out of his way, before he lifted Hilda and began cradling her in his arms, her giving an unnecessary whine as she threw her head back, her pink hair nearly brushing the floor. “Enough of this, Hilda, you know that if Caspar was here the two of you would get into nothing but trouble.”

“There’s no kind of trouble we could’ve gotten into,” she retorted, kicking her feet and narrowly missing hitting the walls as they walked, whining off and on as she saw necessary. Like before, Byleth hung back, staying just far away that if anything were to happen she could dive in to help, but close enough that she could hear all of the words spilling out of Hilda’s mouth without a problem. It was mostly complaining about how she was being treated like a child and that she shouldn’t have had her boyfriend taken from her like he’d been, but Byleth completely sided with Marianne’s decision on that one. In fact, after Hilda had been deposited on her bed with a friendly wave and a blown kiss from Claude as he waited in her doorway to see her slip under her covers, she wanted to say something about it, but he beat her to the punch. “She’s so out of it, she’s completely forgetting that Caspar is _also_ as drunk as she is, if not more, and between the two of them they wouldn’t have the common sense to wrap it,” he joked, closing Hilda’s door tightly and taking Byleth’s hand to lead her back to his room. “She’d love for him to stay over, until consequences would need to be faced and let’s be real, she wouldn’t want to bother facing them.”

“Oh yeah, it’s best that she’s not having to cross that road anytime soon,” Byleth agreed, despite not really knowing how Hilda was anymore when she wasn’t drunk. “It’s not a road any of us need to be crossing right now, I don’t think.”

“Some people might be closer to ready to cross it than others, I don’t know.” Claude paused after he spoke, chuckling to himself as he opened his bedroom door and they went inside together. “Not saying I’m anywhere near ready, that’s a commitment I’m not intending on making anytime in the near future.”

She nodded, fully understanding why he was clarifying like he was but wanting him to know she’d thought nothing of it. “It’s okay, I wouldn’t expect you to be making that commitment, since you’re clearly single and don’t have any intentions of bedding a woman.”

“You got me there,” he laughed, pointing at her playfully. “Definitely missing some key components to that equation.” As he prepared himself a spot on the floor, Byleth watched Claude looking at her almost wistfully, while she got comfortable on his bed that reminded her very much of the one she had at home, down to the firmness of the worn-in spot on the mattress. She could feel herself growing physically tired as she tried watching where Claude was in the room at all times, him going from the closet to the floor and back and forth over and over, until her eyes closed and she tuned the world around her out.

When her eyes reopened, the room was filled with soft morning light and she felt the warmness of another person laying next to her, causing her to roll over to see Claude’s sleeping face on the pillow next to hers. Her heart sank as she slid her hands up and down her body, checking to make sure that she was still wearing what she’d been when she fell asleep, and when her clothes seemed to be in order she gave a sigh of relief, knowing that Claude must have climbed into the bed when sleeping on the floor didn’t cut it for him, and that he’d meant no harm with it. Still, though, she was in his room and there were plenty of others in the house to make assumptions by her whereabouts, and the faster she could get out the better.

Without waking him she rolled out of the bed, taking a look at his curled-up legs and how he’d barely covered himself in the blanket minus his arms and chest, before she headed for the door. It had to be early enough in the morning that everyone who’d been drinking was still asleep, and then she could seamlessly slip herself somewhere and raise no suspicion; she was dead wrong when she opened the bedroom door to hear the bustling of many others throughout the house. It wasn’t until she’d closed his door that she’d realized her belongings were still in his room, but reopening it to retrieve them ran the risk of waking him, so she’d have to wait until he was up by his own decisions before she went back in.

Downstairs was quite the happening place, many of the people who’d been there the night before returning to life, albeit groggy and most likely hungover. “Hey there, where’d you end up?” Leonie asked her, hair thrown all into disarray as she stretched at the bottom of the staircase. “Last anyone remembered seeing you was early on, when you were chilling with Ignatz and Bernie. Where’d you go after that?”

Not wanting to truthfully answer, Byleth gave a shrug and continued on her way, Leonie’s eyes following her as she went into the living room, calling after her that she’d get the answer sometime. “How was your night?” came the next question, courtesy of Dorothea, who’d clearly fallen asleep without a blanket or pillow on the floor and had ended up with someone’s jacket on to keep her warm. “I can’t recall when we last saw each other, but I’m sure that’s my fault, not yours.”

“Mm, yeah, that’s true, I saw you around last night looking like you were having a great time.” It would have been nearly impossible for Byleth to forget what she’d seen Dorothea doing while she’d been drinking, but she was going to be polite and not bring it up specifically. “My night was fine, though, just a lot of wandering around trying to catch back up with everyone with how long I was gone.”

“Makes sense, if I end up disappearing for months for opera engagements I always feel like I’m playing catch-up when I get back as well, and that’s just for a few months! You’ve been gone for five whole years, Byleth, and we all missed you terribly.” The sad look Dorothea put on her face was replaced immediately when she heard Petra nearby waking up, mumbling something about bright lights, and she giggled. “Oh, looks like someone couldn’t handle the Fódlan drinks as well as she pretended she could! Let’s go get you some water and hopefully get you right as rain, shall we?”

It seemed that as long as she didn’t act suspicious, everyone would notice Byleth but not pay too close of attention to her, and once Dorothea and Petra were gone, she took their spot in the room, hoping that she’d be in the clear once there. The plan worked for the most part, with the only person who didn’t move on right away from conversation with her being Leonie, who was simply certain that something had happened that she wasn’t being told. But all good things couldn’t last, and when Claude finally came downstairs with confusion in his eyes as he looked around, she knew that she was about to be caught in what she’d done. “Next time, you get the floor,” he said to her as he approached, several others in the room watching their interaction closely. “I’ve slept in worse places, but there was something about being on the floor in my own room that just…didn’t work.”

“Sounds good,” she replied, hoping that he was bluffing to answer everyone’s burning question of where she’d slept, but not telling them the full truth. “Next time I end up over here overnight I’ll take the floor. Which was what I’d originally offered, but you had to be the charming gentleman.”

“You two can stop lying whenever you’d like,” Sylvain interjected, making his presence in the back doorway known with the statement. “We’re all not blind and deaf, we know you’re trying to play something off like it didn’t happen. Felix already told me you two were up in the room together all night, you’re not convincing anyone that you didn’t get to at _least_ the squeezing stage, if not further.”

“And you must definitely still be working off your alcohol, because there was nothing beyond innocent conversations that went down behind those closed doors.” Claude’s voice was steady, making it clearer he was telling the truth and not trying to pull the wool over everyone’s eyes. “Yes, Felix did catch us up there, but he was drunk off his ass when it happened and he probably is misremembering what he saw because at no point, and I do actually mean no point at all, were any clothes removed or messed with, because we were up there being grown adults having a conversation too heavy for the festivities downstairs.”

That was when Felix and Ingrid both came into the room, hitting Sylvain’s shoulders with matching punches. “I told you that I just saw them come out of the room, I didn’t say a word about what they were doing, you dolt,” Felix snapped, while Ingrid looked apologetically towards the pair for what Sylvain had been saying. “If anyone was doing nasty things last night it was the two of you, anyway.”

“E-excuse me, my hands never once touched Ingrid in a way she didn’t ask for!” Breaking his previously smug (for what he thought was calling people out) attitude, Sylvain looked at Ingrid for her to back him up, while her jaw was dropping at the audacity Felix had to say such a thing about her. “C’mon Ingrid, back me up!”

“He knows he’s making things up to make us feel bad about him sleeping down here, we don’t have to listen to this…just like they shouldn’t have to listen to you.” Tugging on the unraveled braid that she’d been wearing her hair in the night before, Ingrid now mouthed an apology to Byleth before stepping back out of the room, Sylvain following her right away while Felix lingered, watching his friends go before he went with them as well.

“And things like that are why I was content in being just me, myself, and I all night,” Hapi deadpanned from where she was laying on the floor, not even bothering getting up. “Once Freckles left me high and dry I didn’t have anyone to watch things with, and I wasn’t sinking to anyone else’s level, no matter how fun it would’ve been. B had too great of a time for me to think about joining him.” That was when she sat up, her eyes locking with Byleth’s as she knew that she’d explained that nickname the night before. “Have you seen B around anywhere, actually?”

Knowing that the person they were talking about was not someone easily misplaced, Byleth looked around and recalled as many people as she could and their sleeping places before shaking her head. “He might’ve been in one of the rooms upstairs, but I can’t say that I’ve seen Balthus since last night.”

“Figures, I was supposed to be his ride home until he slipped me some drinks and we got stuck for the night, and now he’s disappeared. Oh well.” Hapi gave a defeated shoulder-slump, laying back down. “I’ll stay right here until he shows back up.”

“It’s Balthus, knowing him he called Holst and had him send someone by to pick him up,” Claude said under his breath, so that Byleth could hear him but Hapi couldn’t. He raised his voice when he continued with, “Speaking of Holst, we might want to make sure his precious little sister didn’t die in her sleep, given how drunk she was when we took her to bed. Care to come check with me, Byleth?”

Her heart gave a small flutter at hearing her name the way he said it, and she couldn’t resist that offer when he made it so tenderly. They went back upstairs together, the one thing they did before they went being Claude asking Leonie if she could spare a ride to get Byleth home and bring him back to square one, which she agreed to. Rather than question why that was such an easy task to get in order, Byleth went right along with what Claude was doing, not even thinking to break away to grab her belongings from his bedroom until they’d done what they went upstairs for. Of course, that didn’t happen until after Claude had checked each and every bedroom upstairs for anyone else who was still sleeping, finding that there was just one person other than Hilda still up there and leaving them to sleep rather than waking them up. Hilda, though, was treated to the lovely sound of him making a guttural scream outside her door, getting her to open it to see what was going on and finding Claude doubled over with laughter outside, Byleth bearing witness to her hungover body barely managing to stand there staring at him before she slammed the door in his face.

“I need my things from your room before we go back down and Leonie takes me home,” she said once he’d collected himself and they were ready to go. “I’d hate for her to drive all that way just for me to not have my key, and I’m not sure Alois is there to let me in.”

“Makes total sense, wouldn’t want to inconvenience Leonie any more than we already do.” He didn’t follow her down to his room, allowing for her to duck right in, grab everything she’d brought and everything she’d acquired, and meet back up with him like nothing was different. “Come on, we don’t want to keep her waiting for too long, not when she’s going to end up driving so many others home like Marianne should have done last night. Seriously, don’t know what’s up with her bailing, but if it was really to keep Hilda’s pants on her, then so be it.”

The overall experience was one that Byleth wished she’d been more prepared to have, and as she rode home in the backseat of Leonie’s car, she was granted silence to think about everything that had happened. Parties weren’t her thing, and she should have definitely reconsidered one being her return to having a social life, but when she’d look up and see Claude glancing back at her in the mirror, she decided that some things were worth coming out of her depression for one wild and crazy night for.

If only she fully understood the new path her life was set on, all because she’d stepped out one time without thinking through the possible consequences. The Three Houses Club had been one life-changing experience, but waking up next to Claude in bed was a completely different one, and she’d find out soon enough just what being vulnerable with him would mean for herself—and for _them_.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I promise it won't be two months before the next update, NaNo just took a lot more out of me in regards to writing this than I expected.


	8. Chapter 8

Spending time together became a regular thing for Byleth and Claude, whenever he could catch a ride over to her apartment to pick her up, or he could get someone to drop him off over with her for a couple hours. It wasn’t ideal that they were at the mercy of other people’s help to get to see each other, but it wasn’t the end of the world, not when Claude could easily get one of his many friends to help out as long as they had the time. “Maybe it’d be for the best if we learned out to drive,” Byleth admitted one day when they were at her apartment, her laying on her bed while Claude was sitting on the floor playing on his phone absentmindedly. “It’d save us the trouble of needing people to help us out.”

“As great of an idea that would be, I already know how to drive,” he replied, setting his phone down on his leg and giving Byleth a shrug, her sitting up to look at him rather incredulously. “Don’t have a legal license in Fódlan, though, and my license for driving in Almyra wouldn’t fly around here. Also doesn’t help that I don’t have a car to drive.”

“Pretty sure that Father’s old car is still parked outside, I think Alois would use it from time to time if he didn’t feel like using his own.” Biting her lip, Byleth tried to think of how to proceed at the moment but she was at a loss as to what they could do; she knew that if Claude couldn’t drive without a Fódlan license, that put the burden on her shoulders, and she wasn’t exactly eager to be behind the wheel of a car at any time. “I suppose I can look into taking lessons and learning how to drive for myself, but that’s a process and it’s not an answer for right now.”

“I could always see how much of a headache it’d be to get my license transferred over, if it means that much to you. I’d never thought I’d be staying in Fódlan on a permanent basis but if it’s what’s going to happen, I can prepare for it.” As he was picking his phone back up, they both heard the front door coming open, which shocked him as he’d been told Alois was not going to be there that day—and Byleth, just as surprised, was jumping off her bed and running to go see what was happening.

“Stay in here, please!” she begged, watching Claude nod in understanding as she opened the door and slipped out into the living room, finding Alois coming inside with a grim expression upon his face. “H-hello there, Alois. I thought you were going to be up at the academy all day today?”

He made sure to lock the door firmly behind him before facing Byleth, his eyes shifting from side to side without really meeting hers at any point. “Yes, that was indeed today’s plan! But requests and demands from Lady Rhea take priority over my plans, you see, and if she needs me to prepare for something else then it’s my job to do exactly that.” His soft chuckle was not one that gave any reassurance to Byleth, who was already feeling squeamish at hearing Alois speak about Rhea as he was. “There is something rather important I need to inform you of, Byleth, and I feel you may need to sit down for this.”

“It can’t be worse than you telling me a family member was killed in a shooting,” she muttered, sitting down on the couch just to humor Alois, and when he chuckled again she felt like she shouldn’t have said a thing. “Well, go on, I guess. What’s going on that’s so important you had to drive over here while you should be working?”

Alois walked over to the door to what had been his off-and-on bedroom over the past few years, opening it just a crack. “Now, I want you to accept that this was not my plan, and this was not anything I had asked for, but the situation is dire and with the Hresvelg girl causing waves in the headlines on a daily basis with her threats it was deemed best if we went through with this right away.”

“You’re not telling me anything,” Byleth pointed out, knowing that what Alois was doing was building suspense for something she didn’t particularly care about (although hearing him mention Edelgard as he had did surprise her). “Just get on with it.”

“Right, of course. Effective immediately, my position at the Garreg Mach Monastery Academy has been turned from security of the grounds to round-the-clock monitoring of the archbishop’s living quarters.” He pushed the door open just a bit further, taking a step backward into the room at the same time that Byleth, almost in a state of disbelief, stood up to turn to challenge what he’d said. “I know, this is something that you would rather me not do as it means I cannot be here to provide care for you, but my allegiance to Lady Rhea has always been higher than to anyone else, regardless of if they’re the lifeblood of a friend of mine or not. It has been a treat to spend time caring for you in Jeralt’s stead for the past five years, but I feel he would think that it is time you blossom into your own woman, Byleth, and I am inclined to think this is happening to allow for exactly that.”

“You’re really going to change what you’ve been doing for the woman who blamed me for being upset that my father died for her? The very father you’ve been taking care of me for?” Rage was building in Byleth’s heart, and she wasn’t sure why Alois would make such a decision, even though he’d just explained it to her. She knew that fighting him was not going to do anything because he was too devoted to his boss to care about her feelings on the matter, but she still wanted to get her thoughts out while he could hear them. “I get it, she needs to be protected from people who want to murder her, but she was fine with alienating someone whose _father_ died for her!”

“Byleth, you need to understand that some things are larger than you may see them, and this is one such instance.” With that, Alois fully stepped into the bedroom and closed the door, and when he came back out a couple minutes later, his arms were filled with clothing that he’d stored over at the house. “I will be running these out to the car, there’s just a few other things I have to grab before I will be gone,” he told her, and Byleth was too annoyed at what was actually happening around her to say a word. He did exactly as promised, but when he came back inside, before he went to grab those last things he stood in the doorway again to speak. “I do want to tell you that your father left behind quite a bit of money for your well-being, and now that I will no longer be your guardian you will have access to it. Your rent on this apartment has always been month-to-month, as Jeralt had wanted it, so you will need to decide sooner rather than later—”

He was cut off by the sound of Byleth’s bedroom door opening, Claude coming out without his shirt on and looking like he’d just been woken up. Alois’ jaw dropped at the sight, while Byleth went pale knowing that she was about to be in an even worse situation. “Oh hey there, Alois, long time no see,” he greeted, giving a salute-like gesture to the man who stood stern-faced watching him. “What brings you by?”

“—I was not expecting to see the Riegan boy here with you,” Alois said, looking at Byleth and giving no actually address to Claude. “At any rate, what I was saying was that you will need to decide by the end of the month if you’re staying here or moving to greener pastures, the leasing office will be expecting your message as soon as possible.” Without another word he went into the bedroom and slammed the door behind him, leaving the other two in the living room staring each other down.

Mouthing at Claude in complete shock that he’d done exactly what had just happened, Byleth didn’t know what she would say to him if she could find her voice. It was a treat to see him without his shirt on, his chiseled body easy on the eyes, but for him to have come out like that while Alois was already dropping some harsh news on her, it wasn’t appropriate no matter how much he was trying to help her. “Look, I heard him talking and I figured you wouldn’t be happy about what he was saying, so I came to lighten the mood. Was that a problem with you?”

“Yes, but also no,” she admitted, sighing a deeply-held breath that she’d been holding in all of that nonsense. “I just…I can’t believe he’s going to be out of here forever. He’s been caring for me since Father was killed and now…I’m on my own, I guess?” Her eyes found a resting place on the closed door that she knew Alois was behind, finishing collecting his things before he disappeared out of her life while he focused on work over her. “I don’t know what to do about this, Claude…”

He shrugged, bringing both hands up to the top of his head, where he interlocked his fingers and let them rest on his slicked-back hair. “I’m not really sure what you can do either, it’s not a pretty situation. Although…no, no, I’m not going to suggest that to you. That’d be too far, I think.”

“What’s your idea?” At that moment, it didn’t seem like any idea would be a bad one, because Byleth knew she was not prepared to face whatever was going to be coming her way in life from that day on. But when she saw how hesitant Claude was to say anything else, she began to suspect that he might have been right all along; that sort of was proven to be true when he ducked back into her bedroom and left her all alone in the living room, having to process her new reality there by herself.

When Alois came out of the bedroom he’d been using for the last time, he had a bag over his shoulder and a sorrowful look in his eyes as he came to Byleth’s side, opening his arms for a hug but finding her standing like a statue and unwilling to budge for him. “Byleth, please understand that this decision I’ve been forced to make was not one that was easy for me or my life as it’s been for five years. Do you think I want to be living in Lady Rhea’s quarters? Do you think I want to be separated from my wife every day until this all blows over? Sometimes sacrifices have to be made for the greater good, and the archbishop _is_ that greater good right now.”

“You’re leaving someone who doesn’t know how to live their life to do exactly that.”

“Not because I want to! You need to understand that this is not what I have wanted to do to you, and if I had a say in it this wouldn’t be happening as it is.” Alois, knowing that he was fighting a losing battle with her because she was only going to see his actions as a betrayal and an abandonment, stepped towards the front door. “If you need anything from me, I will be just a call away, but I’m going to assume that contacting my wife will be easier than contacting me. Make wise choices going forward, Byleth.”

Even his parting words felt fake at that moment, and Byleth couldn’t bring herself to say anything in response to them, even with tears beginning to well up in her eyes as he shut the door and slid the key underneath it after he’d locked it. He’d been a father figure for her since she’d lost Jeralt, and now he was lost to her as well, and she’d been helpless in keeping him around. “Maybe it’d be best if something bad happened to Rhea after all, so people would stop losing themselves trying to protect her,” she spat as the tears cascaded down her cheeks, her losing all control of her emotions. “I think I’d almost rather have Edelgard and Hubert do whatever it is they’re trying to do to her, instead of all of this stupid selfishness and entitlement and everything she’s got going on!”

For a moment she forgot she wasn’t alone in the apartment, so when she stormed into her room, she was immediately taken aback by seeing Claude in there, still shirtless, sitting on the edge of her bed with his phone pressed against his ear. Her anger subsided slightly as she was given a finger gesture that told her to be quiet, as he was having some sort of conversation that seemed important enough that he wasn’t joking around as he spoke to whoever was on the other end. And when the call was over, and he set the phone down next to him, his gentle smile in her direction made her feel like her tears were evaporating on the spot. “You’ll never guess who that was I was talking to,” he said, motioning for her to come over to sit with him, which she did. “Never guess it at all.”

“You’re right, I don’t have a clue,” she replied, thinking about all the possibilities and only knowing that it wasn’t one of his close friends, just based on the seriousness. “Are you going to really make me guess, or will you just tell me?”

“I suppose I could just go ahead and tell you.” His voice came out as a slight sing-song, which clued Byleth in that he was being playful, so she quickly made her way to sitting next to him, her shoulder brushing against his arm as he was grabbing his phone to get it out of her way. Once she was settled, she was looking at him expectantly, waiting for him to give her his news, and he delivered as soon as he found the words to do it: “I called Holst and asked him if I could duck out of my living arrangement with his sister, because I found somewhere else to live. Or, rather, someone else to live with. Not quite sure where we’ll be living.”

The way he still had that gentle smile on his lips was meant to be comforting, but for the first couple of seconds Byleth was filled with a sense of betrayal, that they’d been working on building a relationship and he would do such a thing to her on the same day that Alois had walked out as well. Then, much like a bolt of lightning from the clouded skies above, it struck her that he wasn’t talking about some random someone else he’d be living with—he was talking about her. “A-are you sure you want to do that?” she stammered, completely confused about why that would be anything Claude would be willing to do. “I mean, you’ve got it good there with Hilda, why give that up to live with me?”

“One, because living with her isn’t all glamorous as I’m sure you think it is, she’s lazy and always has Caspar coming over and I’m kind of over being their third wheel. And two, because we’re…something, right? You need somewhere to stay and I need to get out of where I’m staying, we’ll be a perfect pair going through this together.” At seeing her look of confusion not fading he grimaced, unsure of where it was she was still tripping herself up. “I just want to do what’s best for you, Byleth, like I’ve always been doing.”

“What do you mean that we’re ‘something’?” she asked, revealing which part of his explanation had kept her from fully understanding him. She could believe that he wasn’t enjoying living with Hilda, she could believe that he wanted to do what was best for her because he really had been doing that since they’d met, more or less. It was just his use of calling them _something_ that she didn’t understand, and she wanted him to explain it. “Are you saying what we’ve got doesn’t have a label?”

“I mean, if you want to put it that way…” He trailed off, his cheeks darkening in color as he reached up and grabbed her chin, turning her head slightly until he had forced her eyes to lock with his. “I didn’t know what else to say about it, didn’t want to overstep some boundaries or anything like that. I’d love to give it a label, because calling us friends? I don’t think that’s going to cut it.”

She knew that he was trying to get her to stare him down until some confession was made, but her eyes kept flickering downward, towards his lips, where she could watch him carefully choosing the words he spoke. Never before had she noticed how pronounced he made his movements when he talked, something that had to be a consequence of needing to mask a native accent or a lisp or anything that he must’ve thought would be picked apart. “What do you want to call us then?” she tenderly asked, keeping her eyes glued to his for the most part, even though each glance at his lips felt like it lasted longer than the previous one. “I’d like to hear it from you.”

“Roommates,” he joked, unable to say it without a laugh (and when he said it, she’d watched his lips purse together and tremble before he’d gotten the word out, so she knew he wasn’t being serious). Once he’d collected himself and righted the mood, he reset his lips back to a neutral line and took in a few deep breaths through his nose, his bare chest rising and falling as he steadied his mind and body for what he was about to admit to. “No, but as fun as just being a pair of roommates would be, I’d feel guilty keeping us at that level. I adore you, Byleth, always have and always will. When I first found out how old you were I thought I’d never have a shot with you, you’d find some older guy to hook up with and leave me behind, but here we are, sitting in your bedroom…”

“I’ve never had a boyfriend before,” she pointed out, voice flat but exhibiting a bit of innocence that she was sure Claude had already figured out about her. “Never had a crush on anyone, never wanted a kiss with anyone, never wanted to spend time with someone, never had anything quite like this…until you came along.”

His hand pulled away from her chin but she kept her position even without it, although her eyes were no longer locked on his. What she’d admitted to had been true, and no matter how exposed she felt having gotten that out into the world, she could tell that he wasn’t going to use it against her. “I feel honored knowing this is your first time wanting, desiring, needing, whatever you want to call it, something like this,” he told her, moving his head in closer to hers as she lifted hers to match his angle. “I promise you, I’m going to be here by your side for as long as you’ll let me, and I’ll promise it with this.”

Kissing hadn’t ever been something that Byleth had thought she’d do with anyone, because she’d never felt the spark with anyone aside from Claude—and as their lips locked she felt all of the desire of five years’ time flowing out of his body and into hers, as if he’d been waiting since that day outside the back door of the Three Houses Club to finally get his chance. His lips were as warm and inviting as they’d looked, and even though she knew they weren’t perfectly locked together she felt like she never wanted to break away from them. Their arms were wrapping around each other quickly, and without warning they were falling back onto the bed, trapped in each other’s embrace as they came apart and smashed back together several times, the final one lasting several seconds before they were finished.

Heads coming apart to the point that there was a hair’s breadth between their noses, the look of pure passion in Claude’s eyes met the one of relief and understanding in Byleth’s. “I’ve been waiting a long time to do that,” he told her, confirming what she’d thought when they’d been in the middle of their kiss. “When you disappeared after everything happened, I thought I’d missed my chance, but now I know I’ll have a million more chances to keep doing that.”

“It was nice,” she said, at a loss for how else to describe it. Things may have been stressful, and going out into the unknown now that she was in full control of her life was not going to help matters, but knowing that she’d have Claude there with her for all of it made it seem a little less daunting. “But we can’t spend all day laying around kissing each other, we need to decide what we’re going to do now that we’re—”

“Roommates?” he suggested again, unable to get the whole word out before he was laughing.

“—I was going to say dating, probably, but that works too.”

* * *

Much like Alois had directed her to do, Byleth reached out to the leasing office at the apartment complex by the end of the week and let them know that she would be moving out at the end of the month, because now that she had control of her life she didn’t need to keep living in the place her father had provided for her. They were willing to work with her on getting the place cleaned up and packed for her move, but she insisted that she had it all under control and thanked them for the multiple years of letting them live there on a month-to-month basis, because she’d learned in researching for new places to live that an agreement like that was not standard.

The reason she’d turned down the offer for assistance was that she didn’t want anyone else trying to pack her life into boxes, and she knew that her and Claude and their friends could do it just fine. In reality, the day they’d decided they weren’t going to stay there any longer they’d started moving everything that Byleth insisted on keeping over to Hilda’s place to store it temporarily, the arrangement of Claude living there expiring at the end of the month as well so they had the time to use the place as they needed. He was frequently getting people to drive from the apartment to the house, while he was helping Byleth pack as well as calling every agency he could to get his papers legal for driving in Fódlan; by the time the whole apartment was either stored or tossed, very little worth trying to resell, he could officially drive for himself and that was one less headache for them.

But with having everything out of one place and into another with a few days to spare, they still hadn’t finalized where it was they’d be living come the first of the next month, and time was beginning to work against them. “Hear me out on this,” he suggested after they’d spent over an hour looking at places for rent in the area around Garreg Mach and finding nothing. “What if we branched out, headed off to a new place where not everyone knows who we are or what we’ve gotten banned from?”

“That’s something that Father always wanted us to do when I was growing up, find new lands to live in and call home for a while. The longest I’ve lived in one place was in that apartment, and most of that was because of…well, you know what happened.” Steepling her fingers in front of her face and tapping them together as she thought, Byleth could see that Claude was eagerly awaiting her counter-suggestion. “Stop looking at me like that, I don’t have anything other than that I don’t want to leave everyone, not after I’ve just barely started to reconnect with them all.”

“You know what? That’s completely fair, didn’t think of it that way.” With his plan firmly dead and in the ground, Claude went back to looking at the rental listings, only to have another idea crash into him. “Then if you’re insistent we stay around here, why don’t we just, uh, buy a place together?”

“You’re really moving this relationship fast, aren’t you?” she teased, although it was an idea she’d had herself when she’d seen a couple of cheaper homes up for sale in the nearby area. It seemed risky to throw themselves into the realm of home ownership when they’d been only sort of officially dating for less than a month, even though the sparks had been there for a long time before that. He gave her a shrug as he continued scrolling through the different apartments and townhomes on his phone, while she grabbed her own phone and pulled up a list of homes. “But I mean, the money Father set aside for me has enough to put down a good chunk on a place, and then…we’d need to start working.”

“Luckily for us, when I got my license approved for Fódlan roads, they also cleared me to work here, so that’s no problem for me.” She liked hearing Claude mention that, because she was slightly tempted to try to go back and finish her degrees she’d been working so hard on before the depression had hit, so that she could get a job using them instead of just getting hired somewhere to get by. “We’ll need to start working regardless of what we’re doing with our living situation, so do you want me to start getting on that while you finish dealing with this, or do we want to know where we’re going to live before I find somewhere to work.”

She clicked her tongue a couple times before deciding, “We can do both at the same time, but you have to promise you won’t be too picky about where I find for us to live if I do find somewhere good.”

“I think I can manage that,” he laughed, and their searches went their separate ways as they sat in the living room at Hilda’s house, all of Byleth’s belongings filling the room around them while they waited to see where they went next. Until they had somewhere to go, or until the quickly-approaching end of the month, her things would remain in boxes there and they’d be sharing space up in his bedroom, but that life wasn’t going to be sustainable for much longer and they both knew it.

Fate, or perhaps the goddess, smiled down on them soon after, as they both found what they were looking for in perhaps the most opportune way possible: a newly-built collection of tiny homes had cropped up for purchase on the outskirts of the area, and with it had come a bunch of businesses looking for fresh employees to hire on. The moment they both told each

other what they’d found and realized the other had found it as well, they shared a laugh before looking deeper into what they’d discovered, and by the end of the next day they’d scheduled an appointment to look at a couple of the homes as well as put in some applications and having gotten an arranged interview at one of them, as a desk clerk at the new grocery store right outside the neighborhood.

With things coming together so quickly, it felt like it was meant to be, but Byleth knew that the moment things started to feel right they were going to fall apart again. The night before the interview and the home inspections, as they were laying in the bed in Claude’s room, she voiced her worries to him and he comforted her by rolling onto his side and covering her with his arm, pinning her to the bed. “Come on, not everything happens in cycles of good and bad! I’ve got a great feeling that this is going to be the start of something great for us both,” he assured her, watching as she solemnly nodded after a few tense moments. “Trust me on this one, Byleth. We’re going to find a home we like there, I’m going to get that job, and everything’ll work out just like it needs to.”

“But what if it doesn’t?” she asked, hearing him sigh when she said it. “I’m being serious here, Claude. I’m starting to think we hurried into a decision we shouldn’t have made and we’re going to be homeless in a couple days.”

“It won’t happen, just be positive! If it comes down to it, my family back in Almyra will help us out until we’ve got it all under control. And besides, Hilda’s not eagerly looking forward to us getting out of here, she’d let us stick around a few extra days if we needed to.” He leaned in closer to her, gently kissing her collarbone where it was exposed above the neckline of her pajama shirt, making her squirm at the contact. “You need to relax and let things happen as they will, it’s all going to go great.”

Believing in what he was saying took more throwing caution to the wind than Byleth would have liked, but she couldn’t keep going against her boyfriend like she was. “Okay, fine, but when something doesn’t work out tomorrow, I told you so.”

“That’s fair, and if it doesn’t work I’ll gladly accept the loss there.” After one final kiss he rolled back over and exhaled deeply, whispering to himself, “But it’s not going to happen, I know things will be just fine, I really do.”

“I can hear you, you know,” she said, doing her own rolling over to stare him down as he pulled a blanket up over his face to deflect her gaze. “And I want to believe they’ll go just fine, but I don’t know, everything seems like it’s gone too good for too long.” Rather than wait to see if he’d poke his head out to meet her for more conversation, she rolled all the way over so that her back was facing him and hiked her half of the blanket up as well, making sure there was plenty of space between them as she started to fall asleep. If there was anything she was going to stay mindful of, it was the fact that although they were dating, they weren’t married and she’d had it drilled in her mind over and over again growing up that people weren’t supposed to share a bed if they weren’t married.

Yet even with that in mind, when she woke up the next morning it was with her legs intertwined in Claude’s, and his arm over her protectively. “Good morning,” he crooned, hitting her with his forehead as she dazedly looked at him with a tiny smile. “Hope you slept well on the night before our lives change forever.”

“Can’t say I did, but I sure tried,” she admitted, not recalling a lick of her dreams she’d had but knowing that she’d clearly been sleeping fitfully enough to have him pin her down as he had. “Here’s hoping everything doesn’t fall apart when we get over to our viewing.”

“Already starting with the negative attitude, you’re going to be the death of me before this is all over, aren’t you?” Laughing as he pulled himself off of her and out of the bed, Claude was completely dressed in the nicest clothes he had before Byleth had moved from her spot, her giving him glares and side-eye looks while he was getting ready. Unbothered by this in the slightest, he made it a point to give her a quick kiss before he headed out of the room, which left her alone with her thoughts and her so-called negative attitude. She didn’t have anything nearly as nice as what he’d put on that would be appropriate for the day’s events, but a pair of dress slacks and a plain shirt that she wore a sweater over felt like it’d do nicely, and once she’d convinced herself it couldn’t all be bad she was out of the room as well.

She met Claude down in the kitchen with Hilda, who was pouting about something that had to have been discussed prior to her entry to the room. “I’m just saying, you can rethink this,” she was pleading, while Claude, unfazed with her words, was grabbing some cups of water for him and Byleth to have before they headed out. “I don’t know why you’re wanting to leave me when you’ve known me for so long!”

“Because I’ve got other people that need me now, first of all, and because I know that you’d rather it be Caspar here than me,” he calmly replied, turning on his toes to hand off a cup to Byleth despite her not having made a sound upon entering the kitchen. “We’ll just be across town if all goes well, it’s not like we’re hightailing it to Almyra or even back to places closer to, say, your brother.”  
“I know, but you’re the perfect housemate! You do all the chores, you’re a decent cook, and you don’t expect me to do anything in return!” After getting her grievances out, Hilda looked at Byleth with eyes narrowed. “What do you have to say for yourself, stealing my roommate so you can keep him around you all the time?”

Rather than answering, Byleth took a long drink from her cup, continuing to pretend she was drinking even after it was empty, and seeing her stalling tactic made Claude burst into laughter, commenting on how she’d gotten Hilda good just then. Even Hilda found it a bit funny, and she did apologize for making such an accusation for a selfish reason, and just like that there was no ill-will between them, even if she was sad she was losing someone who did so much for her at home.

The viewing of the tiny houses was a bit before lunchtime, with Claude’s interview about an hour later, and so once they’d had an actual breakfast that wasn’t just water (it was jam on toast, because it seemed just light enough to not make nervous stomachs get upset) they headed out to the neighborhood they were looking into living in. As he was driving, Claude was pointing out all of the properties he’d seen in his searches and where they were, talking quickly to try and mask how nervous he was about things, and Byleth was doing her usual staring out the window, losing herself in the scenery passing by. It felt strange being in what had once been her father’s car without him, but she knew that this was the way things were going to be and if anyone else had to be at the wheel, she was glad it was Claude.

Driving into the neighborhood, the first thing they both noticed was how actually tiny the houses were, looking like the size of Byleth’s old bedroom rather than a real home. “You sure you still want to see what these are like?” Claude asked her, seeing her frantically searching on her phone to make sure they’d chosen the right place. “It’s cool if you don’t, this doesn’t quite look like what I was expecting.”

“No, no, this will be fine,” she mumbled, verifying they were in the right area of town and that these really were the homes she’d seen listings for; a wave of confusion was coming over her as she tried to understand how these small homes would hold all of the amenities that they were advertising. “I’d like to at least look to see how they are on the inside, but we’ll probably have to find a home elsewhere.”

“Sounds like a solid plan.” His agreement came as he was pulling up outside of the only regular-sized building within view, the office for the entire area, and as they got out of the car he could tell she was rethinking that plan already. “It’s still not too late to turn back, I wouldn’t judge you if you wanted to,” he said, going through the gesture of unlocking the car after he’d already locked it, just for her to shoot him down with a handwave. “Whatever floats your boat, then. We’ll be in and out quickly, from the looks of it.”

It turned out that they were there much longer than they’d expected they’d be, even with the surprise that the homes were so small. The very first model the agent took them into was labeled as one of the smallest ones, and when they came up to it they found that it looked the part perfectly. From one end to the other was about twice as wide as Claude was tall, and it wasn’t much wider than Byleth holding her arms out, but when they went inside it was like a completely different world. There were complete furnishings, a couch and a bed big enough for them both and a kitchen, all in their own spots. Above the bed was a loft that the agent told them was a second, smaller bed, but it could be used for storage space as well, and nestled between the kitchen and the bedroom, split between the sides of the home, were the parts of the bathroom.

“There’s storage accessible from underneath the sofa, which folds out to be another bed if you so need it,” the agent explained, lifting the bottom of the couch to show that there was indeed a hatch door underneath it. “There is also a table that folds out from the wall, and the panel over here—” she gestured to what seemed to be the wall across from the couch, “—opens up for shelving and room for a decent-sized TV.”

“That’s actually really neat,” Claude remarked, while Byleth was still looking around, her mind processing all of the nooks and crannies in the home that hadn’t been mentioned. It seemed that almost every bit of space was used productively, from the obvious drawers underneath the big bed to the closet bars that hung up above their heads in the living room area. “Can’t say I was expecting this much when we saw the place.”

The agent nodded. “A common statement I hear, really. There are models slightly larger that have more space as well, but for just the two of you this would be a perfectly functional starter home. Do you have any questions, or would you like to move on?”

“How much is this one?” Byleth asked without thinking, her having found herself really liking the place despite its small size. “I’d like to know what we’re working with before I commit to anything else today.”

When the agent recited a price that was just about the lowest the website they’d found the place on had mentioned as being plausible, they shared a look between them that let the other know that they were seriously considering it. “Er, can we come back later and discuss things further?” Claude said with a cough, stepping towards the front door at the head of the house. “We have something else we need to be getting to soon and we don’t want to be late for it, but I think we’d like to know more before we make a final decision.”

“We’ll be open for viewings until dusk,” the agent told him, before smiling at them both. “Although, I can tell just looking at your faces that I think one similar to this might be the one for you. This model does come in other colors, so perhaps when you return we can check one of those out? We have a yellow one that—”

“Sounds like something we’ll want to see!” Byleth interrupted, seeing that Claude had actually stepped out the door and she was now left alone with the agent. “We’ll be back later, that’s a promise!”

It felt somewhat rude leaving the agent high and dry like that, but a job interview was waiting and they couldn’t skip out on it. The grocery store it was at was just outside the neighborhood so it didn’t take too long to get there, and they were silent the whole ride as they were both thinking about what they’d just seen. Byleth didn’t want to say it, but she’d fallen in love with the small space, after having spent so many years within the confines of her bedroom, but she couldn’t tell if Claude was as committed to it and she didn’t want to pressure him into a decision before he had something more important to handle.

While he was in his interview with a friendly-looking man at the store, she was wandering around by herself, taking in the shelves and the layout of the store overall. She wasn’t used to shopping for groceries, always having had someone else doing the heavy lifting if not all of it, but if they were serious about this living together thing she knew she’d need to get more used to doing the shopping. It would just be asking too much of Claude if she made him do the shopping in addition to being the one with an actual job for the time being. Thankfully, the store was very similar in the way it was set up to the one she’d gone to with Jeralt when they’d do their shopping, so it felt like she was right at home in there.

She turned down the aisle for the snack foods and caught a glimpse of someone she wasn’t expecting to see, who happened to see her staring down at them. “Byleth, is that you?” Hapi asked, cupping her mouth to amplify her voice, and when Byleth nodded she continued, “Get on down here! I could use your help!”

“Why are you shopping here?” she questioned as she came closer, seeing that her cart was completely empty. “I didn’t know you lived in the area.”

“Oh, I don’t, I’m here to grab some things for a party I’m going to later today. B’s renting out one of the tiny homes behind this place and we’re going to kick it like we’re in high school or something, I don’t remember how he worded it.” Her chuckle made Byleth cringe a little, knowing that B was the nickname for Balthus that Hapi used and that she personally didn’t get along super well with the man, but she didn’t want to cause a scene. “He said he was inviting all sorts of people but I think when they all found out the location they bailed, except for me, anyway.”

“Maybe you should have the party somewhere else, if you want other people to show up,” Byleth offered up as an idea, which Hapi shot down by insisting that it needed to be in its current place. “Then I’ve got nothing. I hope you two have a good night partying, then, it sounds like it’ll be a fun time for you both.”

Hapi grabbed a couple bags of chips from a shelf and tossed them in the cart with zero regard for keeping them whole. “I’m trying to convince at least a couple others to join us. Linny said he’d think about it, but I think he’s at the mercy of his roommate and…oh, right, Linny mentioned that his roommate wasn’t going to be his roommate for much longer. Said something about his roommate moving in with his girlfriend, who was losing her roommate, and last time I saw her roommate he was attached to you at the hip. Can you tell me anything about what’s going on there?”

“I…could, probably,” Byleth admitted, “but I don’t want to keep you from your shopping and your partying. I’m sure someone else can tell you when you’re not busy.” Hapi didn’t seem too bothered by the denial, muttering something under her breath before wishing Byleth a good day, and they went their separate ways down the aisle. As she continued exploring without much in the way of a concrete destination, Byleth began to think about how awkward it would get if they picked out a home and found out that Balthus was a neighbor, but she’d decided she would let Claude be the deciding vote on that.

On her third trip around the store, she had a muscular arm drape itself over her shoulders, alerting her to the presence of the man she’d been waiting on. “Guess who blew that interview out of the water,” Claude said, turning Byleth around as he pulled his arm away from her. “It’s like I’m a natural at talking myself up to people. Looks like we can go back over there and take a look at whatever else they’ve got to offer, because now at least one of us has a job to afford it with.”

“Yeah, about that,” she replied, wanting to be happy for him but also wanting to get the news she’d learned out of the way as soon as possible. “Did you know that Balthus lives in that neighborhood?”

“Short-term rental deal, yeah, I’ve heard him and Hilda talk about it. He’s waiting on a friend getting out of legal trouble for them to find a place together.” Seeing that Byleth didn’t look very thrilled with hearing that, he asked her, “Is there a problem with that? Dude’s a bit of a mess but he’s not the worst we could have to run into if we’re living over here.”

She twisted her mouth to the side in thought but said nothing more on the matter, shaking her head to let him know she was over it. “Let’s just go back and see if we find where we want to live, I’m starting to get tired of walking around this place.”

“Couldn’t even think about blaming you for that, it was a much longer interview than I thought it’d be. Mostly because I impressed them so much they offered me the position on the spot, but who’s looking for those details?” Arm-in-arm they left the store, going over to where he’d parked and getting back in the car in a hurry. Even though their destination wasn’t far from their current spot at all, what Byleth had said had put a fire in their hearts to get the whole living situation sorted out as fast as possible. The same agent that had been helping them previously was waiting at the office when they got back, and right away they were whisked through the neighborhood to a small home on a lot much bigger than the previous one they’d seen, although the home itself was the same size.

The most notable thing about it, though, was its bright yellow exterior and brown front door and shutters on the side windows. “Now this, this is a house I can get behind,” Claude whispered to Byleth, who wasn’t exactly the biggest fan of the color but she knew that it was something that would automatically entice Claude. “Same inside as the other one, right?”

“That’s correct,” the agent said, unlocking the door and pulling it open, “but you’re more than welcome to check it out for yourself if you’d like, just to make sure it’s what you’re really looking for.”

“I don’t think he needs much more convincing than the yellow,” Byleth replied, nudging Claude in the ribs. “Is it the same price as the other one, or are we looking at a different cost for the color upgrade?”

“If your hearts are really settled on this place, we can go back to the office and discuss those minor details.” Chortling, the agent grabbed a file folder off the inside of the front door before shutting it once again. “I’m going to guess, looking at you young folks, that this is going to need a loan on it, so that’s something we’ll need to negotiate as well.”

That was when Claude looked at Byleth and how she was reaching for her small purse she was carrying with her, most likely to pull out her bank statement she’d gotten printed to show off how much was in there thanks to her father’s money. “If it’s the price you spoke of before, we’ll be able to cover it in cash,” he said, causing the agent to do a double take while Byleth, knowing for a fact she did not have that much money to her name, let her jaw drop slightly. “That’s a big decision, I know, but it’s one we can safely make at this time.”

“I’ll…see what I can do to make a cash sale plausible on this one, then,” the agent told him, before heading back towards the office to get things started, leaving the pair standing in front of the locked house together.

“What was that about?” Byleth asked, still shocked at what she’d heard be said. “Where in the world are we going to get that much money?”

Claude held up three fingers. “One, you’ve got a good chunk of it. Two, my family’s helping us out for this too, we’ve got plenty from them as well. And three, if you tell them you’re planning on paying all the fees and costs up front, they’ll discount it as far as they can because they’re getting the cash right then. It’s the easiest dupe in the book.”

“I’m going to take your word for it,” she said after seeing the gleeful look in his eyes as he waggled his fingers. “But come on, if we’re going to actually go through with this we’ve got to get over there and, well, go through with this. You want to handle the financial bit, while I handle finding a storage place for our extra things?”

“That sounds like it’d be best,” he decided, and so it was exactly what they did when they got back over to the office. While Claude and the agent discussed the terms of ownership and payment (it would be inconvenient to pull out that much cash in one day, so a plan was drafted to get it all turned in within seven days), Byleth was looking into storage units nearby that weren’t going to be overly expensive to rent out until they could go through and consolidate more of their junk. This tiny house living was going to be a commitment they were sticking to for a long time, so paying too much to store things they’d never need wasn’t going to be wise, but it needed to be done for at least a little while.

What she ended up finding was a collection of storage units closer back into the heart of town that wouldn’t be breaking the bank to keep their things there, and she quickly locked in one of their mid-sized units before they could possibly run out of them. With that taken care of, she was able to tune into the conversation Claude was having with the agent, which had included a lot of laughing and quite a bit of heated discussion about specific terms, but when all was said and done there was a stack of paperwork to sign for buying the home outright and an agreement for the neighborhood’s utilities that they’d be tapping into.

“All these signatures and the place is ours,” he told her, as she slid her chair closer to the desk they’d been working at. “Just put your name everywhere I put mine, and the place’ll be in both our names so one of us can’t take it from the other without a legal fight.”

Byleth got as far as holding up the pen she’d been given before realizing just how binding this decision was. She’d gotten wrapped up in finding a place to live to the point that she’d forgotten that buying a place with the man she’d been with for such a short time wasn’t the smartest idea. But she knew that she felt deeply for Claude, and he felt the same way for her, so even if it was a foolish decision to make so hastily, it was one that she wasn’t going to say no to. Those documents became covered in signatures from one Claude von Riegan and one Byleth Eisner, and once they’d put on the finishing touches and handed over a decent stack of money, the agent declared the place theirs and handed over the keys.

It wasn’t until they were out in their car with the keys sitting on the dashboard that either of them had anything to say about what they’d just done. “We’re homeowners now, huh,” she managed to spit out, looking at the keys with a sense of awe in her eyes. “Never thought I’d see the day.”

“We’ve still got a week to pay up the rest of the money, and before that we’ll need everything out of Hilda’s place so…ready to get all of that started?” Turning the car on, Claude didn’t wait for a response before he was driving off, taking Byleth over to the bank her account was at so that she could withdraw the maximum that day as a start for paying back the rest of the money for the house. After that it was back over to Hilda’s house, with a quick stop to grab some sandwiches for a late lunch from a drive-up shop that they’d seen on their way over to the neighborhood in the first place.

Upon pulling up outside of the mansion Hilda called home, they could see that Leonie’s car was there, and just the sight of it made Claude sigh. “Guess we’ll be greeted with some of the others when we get inside,” he said, shutting the car off and waiting for Byleth to open her door without a care before he followed suit. “I was kind of hoping we’d be able to slip in, grab some essentials, and head over to our place to start setting up for sleeping there as soon as tonight.”

“What, you don’t want one more night in your bedroom?” she asked him as they walked up to the door and opened it together, finding Linhardt standing on the other side looking them both over from head to toe. It took a moment, but Byleth understood why he was doing that, since Hapi had sort of ratted him out earlier in the day.

“Let me guess, the two of you have finally found somewhere, so you can get your things out of here and I can finally get my favorite napping spot back,” he dryly said, twirling a long strand of his hair around a finger absentmindedly as he spoke. “I’ve heard about where you were earlier today, I can make my assumptions about where it is that you’ll be living.”

“Give them a _break_ , Lin!” Leonie called from inside the kitchen, obviously having assumed who it was there just based on what she was hearing. “Their happiness and comfort is more important than your naptime!”

Rolling his eyes, Linhardt clearly did not agree with the statement. “Anyway, Hilda and Caspar are up in her room doing some cleaning, so I’d recommend you stay down here until they’re finished. Who knows what sorts of things you’d hear if you happened to be down that hall when they discover a large mess.”

“So much for packing the essentials tonight,” Byleth quipped, looking at Claude as he was visibly growing frustrated about being shot down. “I’m sure they’ll be up there until sunrise, which means…maybe we’ll have to use something from my things.”

“No, they’ll be done sooner than that, Leonie and I are in charge of making dinner and Caspar was talking about how he was looking forward to it on the ride over.” Linhardt paused what he was saying to look at the two, before shaking his head. “I’m not sure if we’ll have enough for you both to join us as well, but we can try.”

“It’s not a big deal, we just ate on our way over here.” The side-eyed glance that Claude gave Byleth after he’d said that told her that he wasn’t really interested in having whatever meal the two were preparing. “We’ll spend the night going back and forth between here and where we need to take our stuff, though, so don’t lock us out, and maybe we’ll bring dessert or something back with us.”

“Sounds divine!” Leonie yelled, showing that she was listening in on them even if she wasn’t physically present for the conversation. She then made the offer to help them with moving things the next day if they needed it, which was an offer well-appreciated given that the only vehicle they had for themselves was the car that had little in the way of towing space.

That lack of space made for several interesting rides from Hilda’s house over to the unit they were renting, only to get over there and take out anything from the various boxes that they’d definitely need with them at the house. Since the already-packed boxes were all Byleth’s things from her old apartment, it was mostly her pulling out stuff she’d found she missed in the time it was packed away; most of her clothes and her laptop were the two big things that she retrieved, but there was also the picture of her and Jeralt fishing that she couldn’t bare to lock away forever in the storage unit. “I’m going to find a perfect place for this,” she said, hugging it tight to her chest when she saw it, earning her a raised eyebrow from Claude. “It’s the only picture I have of me with Father. Have you never seen it?”

“Can’t say I have,” he replied, and she pried it away from herself to show it to him. His smile that he gave after seeing the picture of his girlfriend so young with her father felt almost sad, which he explained soon enough. “Reminds me of some of the pictures in the family home back in Almyra. There’s one just like that of me with my parents, except I’m even younger than you are in that one. It’s an oldie, but it’s one that I’d love to have for myself someday.”

“I’d like to see it.” The thought of visiting Claude’s family home felt so real and possible right then, as she looked at the beat-up frame she’d had for as long as she could remember, recalling the stories she’d heard of that fishing trip. “I’d also like to take you fishing with me, somewhere strange to us both, because that’s what Father and I always wanted to do.”

“Hey now, we just became homeowners, we can plan the grand trips another time.” He closed the door on the storage unit and motioned for her to follow him to the car, which she did with the picture tight against her. Their drive over to their home was silent, aside from the occasional shifting of the clothing in the backseat behind them, but when they got out and were taking things into the tiny house, the space for all of those clothes just barely big enough to fit them, with Claude still needing to bring his over, they were able to talk openly about their families and the people they’d lost to get to the point they were currently at.

After setting her framed picture on the shelf across from the couch-slash-table, Byleth’s eyes glazed over for a second, her mind going haywire with thoughts about people missing from her life. Without any explanation, she looked at Claude, who was laying on the bare bed in their new room, and said, clear as day: “When we’ve got things settled here, I want to see Dimitri again. I think he needs the reminder that he has people who care about him.”

“I’m not sure if that’s something we can do.” Sitting up, Claude nearly knocked his knee into the wall dividing the bedroom from part of the bathroom, but he didn’t let it bother him. “But you know what, I’m down for it if you are. What’s a trip down memory lane without doing some sightseeing?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do not judge me for using one of my favorite domestic tropes in this chapter, I am such a sucker for couples going home shopping


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> tw: mental instability, violence

Claude had been right, going to see Dimitri wasn’t something they could actually do on a whim. It took a lot of pulling strings, getting people in the right place at the right time, and begging from him and Byleth both to even get Mercedes—the only person involved with Dimitri who actually interacted with others—to say that she would see what she could do. “I will have to make sure that he and Dedue are both okay with it, and one of those will be harder to convince than the other,” she said with a sad smile, over the meal they’d prepared for her inside the tiny house. “I’m really afraid that the Dimitri you both knew is gone, and he may not want to visit with anyone.”

“I want to at least try,” Byleth insisted, knowing that she didn’t have the full story of what happened to Dimitri and that she wasn’t going to ever be getting it. “He did a kind thing for me way back when and I’d like to repay the favor for him now, when he needs it.”

“That makes sense, but you have to understand that he’s different now. He doesn’t think back to his time at the academy fondly, if at all, and he may have zero recollection of who either of you are, even if you do come see him.” Making a low hum as she thought about the situation, Mercedes shook her head and took a sip from her teacup. “The betrayal he experienced at the hands of Edelgard has shaken him to his core, and from the day he was attacked he’s never been the same.”

Silently, Claude looked at Byleth, who had a facial expression that showed just how determined she was to prove Mercedes wrong about what Dimitri would want. “I’m just going to say this, you’ll never know how it’s going to work unless you let us try it,” he told Mercedes, who nodded because she knew that to be true. “It’s not my decision at the end of the day—it’s not any of ours, really—but we won’t know what happens until we try it.”

“I’ll talk to Dedue when I get back and we’ll see what he thinks of your idea,” Mercedes said after another sip of tea, which she took slowly with her eyes focused on Byleth. “Although, if I’m being honest, I think he’ll be all for seeing you both. It’s really just Dimitri that we have to be cautious with. He hasn’t seen anyone outside of the two of us in years.”

“We’ll change that.” Byleth spoke confidently, like she knew that it was going to happen without a shadow of a doubt. “I went from talking to no one except my caretaker to seeing one friend, to living in a small home with someone who definitely wasn’t that first friend I saw. I know that this would be good for Dimitri.”

“Yes, well…we’ll see.” Setting her cup down gently on its saucer, Mercedes gave them both the same sad smile as before. “I do appreciate you having me over for dinner tonight, this place is quite homey. If I ever get the chance to leave my position I may have to look into getting something like this for myself.” They both thanked her for the kind words, and she stared at them for a moment. “However, have you considered that, in the eyes of the goddess, what you two are doing here is, hm, immoral? Would she approve of you living together?”

The look they shared at that religious judgment was enough to put an end to the meal, as Claude coughed out, “I don’t think this is really the time to be asking questions like that, Mercedes. It was great talking to you, please get back to us about seeing Dimitri soon, but you should probably be on your way, with how late it is and all.”

“Oh my, it is quite late, isn’t it? We will have to talk more about this the next time I see you, whenever that may be!” Mercedes gave her farewells and collected her belongings, leaving without much fanfare, and in her absence the pair looked at each other again, Claude bursting out laughing at how unamused Byleth was at what she’d heard.

“Hey, if you’re really serious about wanting to see Dimitri, we’ll probably have to get used to that sort of talk,” he told her, as she cleaned up their dined-on dishes to put the living room back in order. “Can’t imagine that’s going to be a one-and-done sort of deal with Mercedes, given how she brought that up just now. We’ll be hearing that again, I guarantee it.”

“It doesn’t bother me,” Byleth said, turning on the water in the sink to let the dishes soak before she washed them. “I’ve heard all about how immoral it is to sleep with someone you’re not married to, Father was always beyond worried I’d slip into that sort of relationship and never see my way out of it. But I think he knows that you’re not just here to take advantage of me, so I don’t think he thinks lowly of you for us sleeping together.”

His jaw dropping slightly at her casual mention of what her dead dad would think of their relationship, Claude shook it off and replied, “Great to know you think that, definitely won’t make me want to invest in…I don’t know, ghost-repelling curtains or something? Can’t exactly say how much I like thinking about how he’s watching us.”

“I don’t think he’s actually watching us. He’s probably spent most of his time fishing with Mother.” There was a wistfulness to how Byleth was speaking, unusual for her and her usually emotionless approach to things. “I just meant that I think he would approve of us being together, he’d say you’re good for me and things like that.”

“Ah, yeah, I get you on that.” Squeezing past Byleth to go back to their tiny bedroom, Claude sat down on the end of the bed and looked at her as she continued messing with the dishes. “I’m sure my parents would feel the same way about you. Grandparents, too. They’d all like you and how level-headed and brilliant you are, and they’d tell me that I got lucky to meet you how I did.”

“Why are you talking about them all in the past tense?” Byleth asked. “Didn’t you still have a grandparent alive?”

Beating back tears as he blinked, Claude shook his head. “He died not long after I got kicked from the academy, almost like me no longer being able to be there was a blow to his life. He’s the one who wanted me there, you know, and I…failed him when I challenged Rhea on her treatment of you.” He was starting to cry, genuinely brought to sadness with what he’d just said, and Byleth came to comfort him, her hands still wet from the dishes in the sink.

She held him there on the end of the bed for a while, letting him work through his emotions while she tried her best to keep her own in check, but she ended up crying as well, thinking about how they were really in the same boat—two orphans making a life for themselves despite having lost everything before them. Once they’d calmed down they were able to continue talking, but the topic of parents and family was avoided at all costs. It did put a damper on their evening, but when they crawled into bed together that night and were able to lay with her in his arms, they remembered the most important part of it all: they had each other, and that was all they really needed.

And that was the mindset that drove Byleth to want to get to see Dimitri, because they had been friends, sort of, when they’d been at the Three Houses Club together, and he deserved to remember that he had others who cared about him. Neither her nor Claude had direct access to Mercedes, which meant that whenever they wanted to reach out to her they had to do it through someone else, usually one of them texting Sylvain or Ingrid (or Felix, if there was real desperation) to see if they could reach out on their behalf. Usually the only one who’d reliably do it was Ingrid, but occasionally she wouldn’t be able to and they’d have to rely on one of the others. They’d tossed around asking Annette if she would do it, or even Ashe, because they knew both of them had been decently close to Mercedes in different ways, but they always chose not to on the off-chance that either of them would want to jump on the “let’s see Dimitri” train.

Eventually, after months of getting ignored or just not being responded to in a timely manner, Mercedes sent them a message telling them where to meet her a day a few weeks away, with some very specific directions. “Why doesn’t she want us wearing anything loose, do you think?” Byleth asked Claude, who shrugged. “And the hair, we’re both going to have to make sure it’s not hanging in any way, that’s going to be difficult.”

“Not as much as you’d think, I’m pretty used to doing that for work,” he reminded her, and she looked to see that his hair was slicked back entirely, so that it was fully out of his face, because he’d just gotten home from a shift at the store. “You, though, we’ll have to actually get you some ties or something to pull it back. Don’t think we’ve got any of those.”

“I have some, somewhere.” Thinking about where they might have been, Byleth ended up rooting through several drawers that were crammed full of various things, only to turn up empty-handed. “Or you could pick some up from me from work, I guess. Whatever it takes for us to get to meet with Dimitri.”

Laughing, Claude told her he’d do just that, and so the next time he was at the store for a shift, he made sure to swing through the hair care aisle before leaving to grab a pack of cheap hair-ties that Byleth could use when they went. “I’m going to hope these are the right thing you’re looking for,” he said when he handed her the package. “The only ties I’ve ever used are little rubber bands, which would…not help you with how much hair you’ve got.”

“No, these are right. I’ll learn how to do a high bun or something to keep my hair fully out of the way, just like we’ve been told to do.” Honestly it seemed like a lot of work to get to see someone, but there had to be some reason that Mercedes had made those requests in the first place and neither of them really had any interest in testing her limits on what was allowed. For the next few weeks, while they waited until the arranged day, their time was mostly spent doing mundane things like working and getting a return to college organized. That was mostly at Claude’s prompting, because Byleth was fully content with waiting until they were more settled into their lives before jumping back into school. “If you wait, you’ll never go back,” he pointed out, “and haven’t you said a million times that you’re super close to finishing with _three_ degrees?” Him seeing that as a huge accomplishment (which it was) prompted Byleth to just bite the bullet and get classes back on her schedule, so that she could finish up and finally move on from education.

The start date for her first, and final, round of classes came the same week as they’d be seeing Dimitri, which felt like it was perfect timing. In fact, when they went to see Mercedes at the coffee shop she’d planned to meet them at, Byleth mentioned that and the reaction she got was one of genuine amusement. “You were getting a psychology degree, weren’t you?” Mercedes asked with a giggle. “And now you’re going to see a prime case study before your very eyes when we get to the house.”

“Why’s that funny?” Byleth tilted her head, feeling the top-heavy bun she’d tried to style her hair into shifting as she did. “Shouldn’t you not laugh at someone’s suffering?”

“Oh, no, Dimitri’s mental state is no laughing matter, but the timing of this all is! If you need to use him for a paper at any point, please, reach out and we’ll get you an observation time. Of course, that does require today going over well, so…shall we get to it?” With a drink carrier in her hands that held two drinks, and Claude and Byleth each carrying their own, they walked down the street a couple blocks, leaving the couple’s car behind, until they arrived at a gated community that Mercedes was able to enter just by looking at the guard out front. “This place is usually reserved for renting on a short-term basis, but because Dimitri trying to go back to Fhirdiad would leave him without access to the therapists who have been working with him since day one, the community manager has made an exception to his most high-profile resident.”

“But wouldn’t him going back also get him further from the person who did this to him?” Claude asked, knowing enough about Fódlan’s geography to know that not only was Fhirdiad further from Enbarr than Garreg Mach was, but that Fhirdiad had no reason to be visited by Dimitri’s assailants. “Couldn’t you guys find him new therapists?”

“Seeing as the ones here have barely done anything to help him, I doubt it,” Mercedes replied, ignoring the first question entirely. “Now enough about that, the building’s right here and we want to avoid those types of conversations when inside.” They were standing in front of a grand, almost mansion-like, home that Mercedes knocked on the door of with her elbow, as her hands were both occupied. When it came open just a crack, she said, “I brought you a coffee as an apology for being gone for so long today. Will you let us in?”

On the other side of the door, Dedue looked at the visitors with a stern, unflinching expression, before opening the door fully for them. “Thank you for the considerate gift,” he said to Mercedes as she passed, only to go silent when Claude and finally Byleth came inside. “I shall take it into the kitchen with me while I start to prepare lunch. Are you all fine with a recipe from Duscar for lunch, or should I make new plans?”

“They’ll be fine with whatever,” Mercedes assured him, setting the carrier down so she could give Dedue his drink before taking her own hot tea. “They’re aware of how delectable your meals are, they’ll eat whatever’s placed before them!” He gave a grunt before taking his drink with him into the kitchen, while Mercedes headed to the adjacent hallway, motioning for the others to follow her. “Here, we’ll have about twenty minutes before we need to get ready to eat, so that should be plenty of time. Come with me.”

The gravity of the situation was beginning to settle on their shoulders, but they were in too deep to back out now. Claude grabbed Byleth’s hand and took it in his own, giving it a gentle squeeze as they followed behind Mercedes, her taking sips of her drink while they merely held their own in anticipation of what was to come. She brought them to a doorway halfway down the hall, which she gently knocked on. From the other side came what sounded like a wounded animal trying to make contact with them, and she opened the door at the sound. “Wait right here, I’ll let you know when you can come in,” she said, before closing the door to the point that it was open just a tiny crack.

Inside the room they could hear movement, as she was rearranging things, while talking in a low whisper. “I…don’t have guests,” they both heard a voice that was distinctly not Mercedes’ say, which they knew had to be Dimitri. Looking at each other, Byleth mouthed a question about him sounding rather grizzled, while Claude gave a very uncertain shrug and shake of his head. “Who did you bring to see me?”

“Patience, Dimitri! Let me get them somewhere to sit before I bring them in.” Even with the whole situation being somewhat bizarre, Mercedes was still finding it easy to be her usually cheery self, and soon enough she was opening the door to invite them inside. “I’ve brought some old friends to come see you. Dimitri, do you remember Byleth and Claude?”

If it wouldn’t have been taken as rude, Byleth wouldn’t have entered the room, but she only came in at Claude’s tugging of her arm. Dimitri was sitting on the floor against the far wall, half of his face covered in bandages and his blond hair a long, tangled mess around his face. “I…do remember them,” he grunted, looking first at Claude before his uncovered eye settled on Byleth. “They look…different.”

“Of course they look different, it’s been a long time since you’ve seen them! Here, you two, have a seat over here so that you can all catch up.” The seats in question were folding chairs that had scratch marks all over them, paint peeling in every direction, and yet they took them graciously. “I’m so glad you’ve got guests today, Dimitri! You never get guests.” He remained silent at her statement, which led her to turn her attention over to the others. “Which of you wants to go first?” she asked them, which neither of them wanted to answer. After taking a moment to consider the options, Mercedes triumphantly declared that it would be Byleth who would go first, and she had her stand up and take a couple steps closer to where Dimitri was sitting.

“Uh, hey there, Dimitri,” she greeted, trying not to let her apprehension be too obvious. “It’s really good to see you.”

“Byleth. You’ve changed.”

“I mean, it’s been five years since you last saw me, I’d think I’ve changed.” When she mentioned how long, specifically, it had been, Dimitri’s eyebrow had furrowed slightly, but he did nothing more than grumble, which led Mercedes to tell her to keep talking. “You’ve changed too, all of us have.”

The furrow deepened. “Last time…you were crying.”

“Because the last time you saw me was at Father’s funeral.” That time he gave a much more violent response, raising an arm and trying to reach out at her, and in a panic Byleth jumped back halfway to her chair. Mercedes, watching the interaction carefully, cautioned her to watch the topic and to not make such sudden moves. “Right, sorry. I’m glad I get to see you today, Dimitri. You look like you could use the company.”

“No one visits me.” He was saying things that had already been established, but before Byleth had the chance to tell him that was changing because they were there, he was continuing on. “You look happy now.”

“I’m sure I do look happy, but I’ve gone through a lot since I was sad. Really, it was fi—”

“Byleth, have a seat,” Mercedes hurriedly told her, watching Dimitri’s shoulders rise at the way she was rehashing the past yet again. “You’re in danger of him snapping if you keep going on like this.”

She mumbled another apology and took her seat, Claude patting her leg before he was told to approach Dimitri for himself. “And just what am I supposed to say here?” he asked with a laugh, looking at Dimitri. “It’s been a while, hasn’t it? Looking good, by the way.”

“Claude.”

“That’s my name, yeah. Glad to know you remember it.” Even though it hadn’t been his idea to be there in the first place, Claude was doing a much better job of keeping things lighthearted and casual in the conversation. “I’ve been hoping I’d get to come by and see you sometime, I’ve heard you’ve been through the wringer. Good thing the best way to take care of that is some good company, huh?”

Dimitri’s whole visible face darkened. “I took care of her for you.”

“Who are you talking about there, pal?” He saw that Dimitri was pointing in Byleth’s direction with a finger that was held close to his body, and he slowly nodded. “Right, yeah, you did do that. Haven’t I thanked you for it before a bunch?”

“I took care of her for you,” Dimitri repeated, his tone becoming gravellier by the second, “and you let me…you let this…” He was starting to rise to his feet, which had Mercedes jump to hers and get in between the two men, her hand pressing against Dimitri’s chest while trying to shoo Claude away.

“That’s enough, Dimitri!” she yelled out, him sitting back down after glaring at her with his one eye for a few tense seconds. Once she felt she had control of the situation, she looked at Claude and gave him a sad smile, while he stared back at her, slack-jawed from what had just gone down. “I’m so sorry about that, Claude, I’m not sure why he’s holding things against you, when you weren’t there when it happened.”

“It’s all good, I wasn’t expecting him to remember me anyway.” Going back to his seat, Claude sat down to find Byleth immediately offering him her hand to hold, which he took without hesitation. “Thanks for trying to facilitate something for us, but I’m not sure how well this is going to work.”

Giving a soft hum, Mercedes was once again looking at Dimitri, who was digging at the bandages on his face. “Stop that, you’re going to tear it open again if you keep trying to get under there,” she scolded, completely ignoring what Claude had said. “And if you tear it open again, we’re not going to be able to take advantage of the weather today and go for a walk. Do you want to go for a walk?”

It was like she was talking to a young child, but Dimitri dropped his hand from his face and grumbled that he would like to. “Can you imagine if you’d taken a loss as bad as he took this?” Claude whispered to Byleth, who almost shot back that she _had_ locked herself in her apartment for five years after Jeralt had died, but she refrained when she noticed that Mercedes was now looking at them.

“You’ll join us for the walk, won’t you?” she asked, to which they nodded. “Good. It’ll be after lunch, so that we can all get some fresh air and clear our minds just a bit. Which reminds me, it’s about time for us to go get ready to eat. Would you two please head out to the dining area, we’ll be with you in just a moment.”

Since they didn’t really have a choice but to comply with the request, they grabbed their drinks (Byleth had already gulped down most of hers, but Claude’s was barely touched at all) and went back to where they’d split from Dedue, seeing the table just beyond where they’d entered. “I can’t believe this is how he lives,” Byleth said in a quiet voice, looking around the bare walls of the house. “He’s completely different than when I knew him.”

“He’s definitely not doing well, no wonder Mercedes drops everything to come over here to help Dedue out all the time.” Glancing towards the kitchen, where the strong smell of spices was heavy in the air, Claude shook his head. “Bet he never thought he’d be playing caretaker to his best friend when he got older, but look where he is.”

“I wish there was something I could do to help.” Swallowing down the rest of her drink as she thought about what there was she could possibly suggest as a helpful action, Byleth’s eyes went wide when an idea struck her. “Why don’t we send Bernie over here? She did wonders on getting me out of my rut, she could help Dimitri too!”

“While that would be a fantastic thing to suggest to Mercedes, something tells me ol’ Bernie wouldn’t enjoy being charged at by a man twice her size when he inevitably thinks she’s to blame for his downfall.” Claude’s answer was not what Byleth wanted to hear, but it was the realistic way to look at things, and so she decided that it would be best not to ever bring it up with anyone else. They waited for a couple minutes before Mercedes, cheerfully, came down the hall with Dimitri trudging behind her, his stomps echoing through the otherwise silent home, his big furry blanket he’d been using as a cape left behind in the room.

“Take your seat, so that our guests can pick theirs,” she told Dimitri, waiting for him to pull himself a chair at the head of the table, only for her to look at them as they looked to her for directions. “Anywhere but the seats on either side of his will be fine, I’ll sit wherever and Dedue is always on his blind side.” With that, she popped into the kitchen, either to help with food preparations or to talk to Dedue.

Nodding, the pair took chairs on the exact opposite side of the table, with Claude sitting next to Byleth as she took the other head chair. “It’s like he’s an animal they have to care for all the time,” Byleth said, glancing towards Dimitri as he reached for his napkin at his seat and shoved it in his mouth the moment he had it in his grasp. “Or a baby.”

“Spit it out,” Mercedes called from the kitchen, almost as if it was routine that they went through on the regular, and Dimitri obliged with a mutter.

“That, uh, really didn’t help me see it any other way.” Byleth felt a bit guilty for having wanted to push so hard for this meeting, but she hadn’t had any idea that this was the kind of life Dimitri was leading in the wake of everything that had happened. If she’d known that she would see him barely recognizable despite only five years having passed, she would have chosen not to come.

Noticing that Byleth was clearly thinking through what was going on a bit more than she’d done before, Claude reached over and clasped her shoulder tightly. “Don’t beat yourself up over wanting to be here, I was curious about how Dimitri was myself and so we’re both here because we wanted to know. No harm in finding out the truth, it just gives us closure.”

“You’re…together.” His voice was relatively normal, not as grizzled as it had been in the room, and they both looked over at Dimitri, who was staring at where Claude’s hand had landed. “Dating? Married? How?”

After deciding that not answering him could be worse than saying anything, Byleth took in a short breath and replied, “We’re dating, and we have been for a little while. Nothing too crazy, and nothing more than just dating.”

The very corner of Dimitri’s mouth ticked upward, which on his otherwise angry face looked quite strange. “Congrats, you deserve it. He always loved you.”

“So I’ve heard, actually.” This felt almost wrong, after how they’d seen Dimitri acting, but if he was going to have a moment of clarity in front of them it was appreciated. That was dashed immediately by him trying to eat the napkin again, while Byleth sighed and wished she’d been able to speak more to him while he’d been in his right mind.

Their lunch was one of the best meals they’d had in a long time, Dedue being a fantastic cook that expected no praise on his cooking for one interesting reason. “Dimitri has zero concept of taste; he can eat anything at any time and he would not know what it tastes like. Hence his…proclivity for sticking inedible objects in his mouth.” There was a pause, while Dedue checked that Dimitri hadn’t done anything brash at the sound of his name, and then he was continuing on. “Only when Mercedes is here for a meal do I hear the compliments, and as appreciated as they are, they are not necessary.”

“Then we’ll leave it at your food’s good, yeah?” Claude suggested, to which Dedue cracked a smile and told him that was acceptable. “Fair enough. Your food’s good.”

“I gathered that from what you asked.”

“Yeah, yeah, sure you did. Mind turning to look at me while I say it?” It seemed rather out-of-character for Claude to ask something like that, but when Dedue hesitantly obliged and turned, he got as far as three-quarters of the way to facing them before Mercedes jumped in, telling them to not have such an interaction over a lovely meal. “I just want to be able to look into the eyes of the guy who cooked me the food, I do it to Byleth all the time at home when she makes dinner for us.”

Byleth nodded, but Mercedes remained insistent that they not do that over lunch. “It’s going to take from the food still being warm, and everyone deserves a warm meal,” she pointed out. “Especially the man who cooked it for us.”

Independently of each other, Claude looked at Byleth as she looked at him, and they both said, quietly, “They’re hiding something.” The fact that they’d both come to the conclusion took them by surprise, and it was beyond obvious that they’d just said something, which was why Mercedes was watching them with her head slightly tilted, so they had to play it off like nothing had happened and wait for the right time to bring it up.

Of course, that required it not being brought up without their involvement. But the moment that Dimitri grabbed a spoon that he’d been using to eat with and brandished it like a knife, just based on how Dedue immediately wrestled it out of his hand, they could make a strong guess as to what happened. “He’s not allowed to have anything remotely similar to a weapon right now,” Mercedes said with a soft tone, not watching the two men on the other side fighting over a spoon of all things. “He managed to slice his face back open with a fork the other day while I was here.”

“I was going to say, it’s been a long time, he shouldn’t still need bandages,” Claude replied, only able to not watch the scene because he was looking at how Byleth _was_ watching it with horror in her eyes. “Just didn’t feel right to ask about it.”

“Someone living around here had their news on a bit too loud and he heard them talking about the…planned attack on the academy,” she continued, still speaking softly enough that she knew she wouldn’t be heard over the slamming of hands and chair legs. “It set him off into a rage, but a quiet rage. One that Dedue and I didn’t realize was there until we were eating and he grabbed the fork and tore his cheek open. Then he…well, there’s a reason I didn’t want Dedue looking at you straight-on, you know.”

“Figured about as much.” Cringing at the thought of being attacked by a fork already used to hurt the attacker, Claude let out a long breath before saying, “Is it really a good idea for us to go out on a walk, if that happened last time you were out?”

She nodded eagerly. “Most definitely! With the two of you around, it should be enough that if anything does happen, we can get assistance. When it’s just me and Dedue with him, if anything happens it takes both of us to control him. It’s why I spend most of my time here every day, after all. Dimitri’s a sweetheart, but that kind soul is locked behind all these layers of trauma and anger.”

“I’m going to trust Mercedes on this one,” Byleth said, her mouth half-full of her last bite of her second helping of lunch—she’d been a lot hungrier than she’d realized, and Dedue’s cooking had been so delicious. “I mean, she spends more time here than we do, she’s going to know what’s best, I’d think.”

“Such kind words, thank you. I promise nothing is going to go wrong on this walk, it’ll just be a quick one through the flowers. But, of course…” Mercedes cleared her throat and loudly yelled, “if you don’t stop trying to hurt yourself or Dedue with that spoon, we’re not going to go on our walk!”

Whatever it was about Mercedes putting on her stern voice got Dimitri to drop the spoon instantly, sulking in his chair while Dedue cleaned the table up in front of them. “Thank you for the intervention, Mercedes,” he thanked as he came over to their side to carry off their plates as well. “Often I find he is no longer scared of me as a physical presence. Especially not after last week and what happened.”

It was only then that Byleth and Claude were both able to see the jagged line of stitches crossing underneath Dedue’s eye, from where he’d been stabbed. “It’s the least I can do, with you having devoted your time and being to getting him out of this state.” Bowing her head gratefully, Mercedes seemed like she thought there was going to be an end to Dimitri acting in such a manner, but when she lifted her head there was a glaze over her eyes, as if she knew she was believing in the impossible.

Once they were outside on the walk, it made sense why it was such a treat for Dimitri to get to go out on them; the area they were going around was lovely, with off-season flowers in full bloom amidst more seasonal fare. “They started growing blooms from Faerghus here when we approached them about it,” Dedue explained after going into fine detail about some of the flowers. “It would never have worked without this being a greenhouse as it is.”

“Huh, it sure is,” Claude replied, looking up to see the glass ceiling way above their heads. “Kinda nice in here, like it can be any season you want whenever you want it. Bet that can get nice when it’s snowy and cold out.”

“I…miss the snow and cold,” Dimitri said after thinking about what he’d heard from Claude and looking up for himself. “Fhirdiad is always snowy and cold.”

No one was sure how they should respond to that, so Mercedes decided to try to move the conversation elsewhere. “It’s been lovely having visitors today, hasn’t it?” she asked him, hoping to nudge him into a different direction, but his eye remained pointed upward. “Dimitri, answer the question. Hasn’t it been lovely with Claude and Byleth with us?”

He faltered, his whole body tremoring once, twice, before his head snapped back down straight. “It was snowing that night,” he growled, his arm raising. “It was snowing and I took care of—”

“Claude, watch out!” Byleth was the one who screamed, seeing that Dimitri was lunging towards her boyfriend with that arm outstretched, but Claude had still been admiring the ceiling and didn’t know why Byleth was saying anything until too late. He’d turned around and found his throat pinned with Dimitri’s hand. “Let go of him!”

Dedue was already trying to pry the fingers from Claude’s throat, while Mercedes was begging for Dimitri to let go, but for the moment his grip was too strong and he wasn’t going to budge. “I took care of her, and you couldn’t do the same,” he spat, tightening how he was holding Claude with every word. “You let her suffer, you let me suffer, you did all of this.”

“W-why are you blaming me?” Choking out as he was being choked, Claude could do nothing without jeopardizing the efforts to save him from the restraint. “I didn’t hurt Byleth, I wasn’t even there when her dad was killed! You have to stop blaming me, dude!”

“You let her hurt, you let her get kicked from the academy, you let this happen to me.” With his other hand, Dimitri started to tear at his facial bandages, and while he was distracted with trying to pry those off he did let go of Claude’s throat slightly, allowing him to take in a sharp, painful breath. Noticing what was happening, Mercedes, beginning to cry with how desperate she was to get Dimitri to stop, ordered Byleth to go to the front desk of the community and have them send security to help.

She couldn’t quite remember the last time she’d moved that fast in her life, heading blindly towards the desk she’d never seen before in her life. There was someone waiting there, looking like her bursting into the room was the most exciting thing they’d experienced all day, and soon enough she was on her way back following behind two security guards much burlier in stature than even Dedue was. They seemed like they were used to having to restrain Dimitri, which made her wonder if his tendency to attack others was why no one had come to visit him, that maybe Mercedes had told them about that facet of his new personality before they decided to show up. But seeing him in those men’s arms as they took him back to his room, while Claude was left with a giant handprint on his throat from the pressure of Dimitri’s grasp, it seemed like abandoning him for his violent breaks was taking the easy way out.

At least before they walked back down to the coffee shop, Mercedes stuck with them to finish the walk around the gardens, as Dedue went back to continue his duty as Dimitri’s guardian. “He’s never done that before, not exactly,” she said with her finger on her chin, thinking about everything she’d seen before. “Worst before today was the fork, but before that? The time he scratched a therapist hard enough he drew blood down her face, I suppose, but that was over a year ago. I really thought he was making progress.”

“He’s lucky I’m not into that, or we’d be having more problems,” Claude joked, rubbing at the parts of his throat that still had vivid marks on them, from where Dimitri’s fingers had been. “But seriously, if that’s the worst he’s going to do to someone, then whoever comes to visit him should have a strong throat. Easy as that.”

“No one wants to visit him, and with good reason.” Pursing her lips together, Mercedes noticed that both Claude and Byleth were looking at her, waiting for her to elaborate further. “Oh, I suppose that wouldn’t really be common knowledge. He blames everyone who was present the day Edelgard had Hubert attack him for the attack, regardless of if they had anything to do with it or not. The only people who are safe from those accusations are myself, Dedue, and…somehow just Byleth, despite you not being there either, Claude.”

Byleth nodded, finding it strange but thinking about the specifics. “It may be because, like he kept repeating, he ‘took care of me’ at the dance, because Claude wasn’t there, and then I lost Father the next day. He may have mashed my trauma in with his own and decided Claude was the reason I hurt as much as I did.”

“Given how traumatized he is about the whole attack, that wouldn’t be a surprise. Why, it’s miraculous that I don’t upset him, since it’s common knowledge it was my brother who set the chain of events in order with the raid of Lady Rhea’s office.” Mercedes took a few steps ahead of the other two, before turning around to face them both. “However, those details aside, I’m glad you two went through with coming to see Dimitri. It didn’t go very well, but I think it meant a lot to him to see friends who aren’t me or Dedue for the first time in years.”

“Not even any of his other former Blue Lions, huh?” Claude asked, to which Mercedes froze and cast her eyes down. “Is that a ‘they don’t want to be here’ thing, or a ‘they aren’t wanted here’ thing?”

“Claude, maybe you shouldn’t push her on that, it looks like you’re hitting a nerve.” Byleth could see that there was pain in Mercedes’ face as she stood there, statue-like, looking at the ground at their feet. “She’s not going to answer that.”

Surprisingly, she did answer it, but the answer they got was not the one that they’d figured they would get. “We tried having them come by one time, about a year after Dimitri started seeing his therapists. Most of them came, all but Felix, actually, but none of them were able to get in the house because if they so much as stepped inside with one foot, Dimitri would start yelling and threatening to kill them. It was terrifying for us all, especially those who really just wanted to see an old friend. I’ve never heard Annette cry so hard about being worried in her life, and Sylvain seemed genuinely hurt by the denial.”

“That makes sense, guess I should’ve seen that coming. It didn’t feel right to think they’d all skip out on trying to visit, there had to be some reason for why they wouldn’t.” Forcing a smile, Claude came up to Mercedes and crouched down to get into her line of sight, seeing her laugh when his face was in view. “Look, even though I got choked out for a bit there, this was a good experience. Definitely one we’ll need to try to have again when he’s doing a bit better. Maybe next time you can warn us if he’s been violent recently?”

“It completely slipped my mind to do that, so I’ll try.” They shared a hug, Byleth coming in at the end because she realized she wanted to get to hug them both as well, and when they broke apart Mercedes was once again walking them through the gardens, showing them the path they took Dimitri on his walks on. For living such a troubled life, it seemed that they had found a good place to help Dimitri live it in, and he was in capable hands between Mercedes and Dedue, even if only one of them was the primary caretaker.

They looped back to the front gate of the entire community and it was there that the farewells were said and the promises made that they’d be back to visit someday, whether Dimitri was still a grumbling mess or not. “Could’ve gone better, but I think it was worth it,” Byleth decided as they were on their way back to their car at the coffee shop. “And if we don’t want to come back anytime soon, we can always just invite Mercedes over for dinner.”

“Except she didn’t badger us about our ‘purity’ in the eyes of the goddess while we were here, and we’ve really got to weigh that choice. Is it worth not risking being attacked if we’re going to be judged for living together?” His question wasn’t meant to have an answer, but if he’d wanted one, Byleth would have been honest: she would prefer coming to see Dimitri and try to help him break through his mental state over being asked about sleeping in the same bed as her boyfriend, any day of the week.

* * *

There was something charming about having that tiny house all to themselves, with no one around to tell them how to live their daily lives. As they got more comfortable with the routines their small space required them to have, they found that they were beginning to already tweak what they did, day in and day out. Before, every meal had to be scheduled so that they could have the dining area set up before they were cooking anything, but once they both knew how to get the table down in thirty seconds, that wasn’t as necessary. Same with taking showers, they were able to do that without effectively trapping the other in one half of the house, unlike when they’d moved in and the door to the shower would have to be open as they adjusted to the space within it.

Byleth liked that she never really had to go anywhere, a reminder of the life she’d led with both Jeralt and Alois as her caretakers, but she also liked that if she wanted to, she could easily walk down to the store and do the shopping for the week, meeting Claude as he was clocking out so that he could drive her and the groceries home. She also liked that she was able to sprawl out in their bed while she had the house to herself, have her laptop sitting on the foot of the bed, and watch both her screen for her classes and the door in case someone came up to visit. It was kind of nice being able to be a homebody without locking herself up in one room only, and she would take advantage of the small space however she saw fit when she would be doing her classwork.

That entire semester was mostly spent with them only seeing each other in small moments, spending time together in smaller ones. It was a shorter semester to begin with, being one that ran outside of traditional school semesters, and so Byleth was slammed with all of the work of all of her classes on a near-daily basis, which made her even more likely to not leave unless necessary. Still, one of the moments she cherished dearly was when she’d show up at the grocery store without warning and surprise Claude as he was doing his boring customer service work, greeting her with a smile and a wave, which she returned to him with as much happiness as she could. The domestic life was treating their relationship well, and even if they didn’t get to hang out together aside from mealtimes and when they’d be in bed, because of him working or her classes, they were still just as in love as they’d always been.

The first long weekend there was for the classes came at a perfect time to suggest doing something, the weather nice enough to have the front door to the house propped open even while Byleth sat on the couch and did her work, and Claude managed to get the whole weekend off just to get to say he spent time with his girlfriend. “You know, since I’ve got an extra day this weekend,” she said, her eyes glued to the term paper she was writing, “I can probably afford to not focus all my attention on school for once. You want to invite some friends over to celebrate a bit of free time?”

“Never would’ve guessed you’d be the one to suggest such a thing, but I’m down. It’s kind of short notice, though, so it may not pan out.” She shrugged, clearly not too bothered if her idea didn’t happen, but Claude tried his best to get at least one person arranged to come over for a night of fun and relaxation there in the tiny house.

He ended up managing to get a handful of them to agree to showing up, which was more than he’d anticipated and more than they actually had space in the house for. The weather was still nice, though, so he told everyone to bring some garden chairs and they’d be able to hang out in the yard if they didn’t want to cram inside. However, he wouldn’t tell Byleth who he’d gotten to agree to coming over, which frustrated her as she wanted to know. “How am I going to know I shouldn’t just spend the time working on my paper?” she asked, scrunching up her face when she got no answer. “Come on, even one person?”

“Not Hilda. That’s an answer to that question, isn’t it?” It was, but it was one that she honestly wouldn’t have expected, given Hilda’s social standing with everyone. “Or Caspar, but I’m sure that’s a given. Linhardt, too, he’s taking advantage of having the place to himself and sleeping all day, that’s what he told me.”

“Oh, they must be doing something together, good for them,” Byleth casually replied, not actually too hurt that Hilda and Caspar wouldn’t be coming over, because she knew how easy it was to see them if they were available. “Guess I’ll just have to wait and see who does show up, but if they’re not worth it I’m sitting in the bedroom and working the whole time they’re here.”

“And that’s a fair thing to say, but I promise that you’ll enjoy seeing who I’ve invited over.” Claude smiled at her, and she felt herself melt behind the computer screen, a feeling that did not dissipate even as he sat down next to her, draping his arm over her shoulders. “How close to done with this thing are you, anyway?”

“This paper? Not even close, and this is just for one of my classes. This one’s not even the longest paper I’ve got to write.” She had wanted to add something about how it was the price she paid for wanting to finish all three degrees that semester, but she felt that Claude understood why she was working so hard. As soon as she could consider herself done and graduated, she’d be able to find a job of her own and not be totally reliant on someone else to be paying the bills for once in her life, and she knew that he was there to support her on that journey into the unknown.

But before they could even get into that journey, the spontaneous friends’ night was going to happen, and she was honestly looking forward to it. Since she knew that Hilda wasn’t going to be there, she knew it really could be anyone within reason that would be in attendance. Just the idea of suggesting that he’d reached out to invite Lorenz (or Ferdinand, because he’d been roped into that whole problem too as far as she could tell) made her feel like she’d misinterpreted why he was keeping things a surprise, though, since doing that would require going very far behind the back of a close friend and that just didn’t seem like a Claude thing to do. She also knew that it wasn’t going to be Dimitri or Dedue, but Mercedes was a possibility, although how much of one, she wasn’t sure.

So when the afternoon of that free day off came around, Claude headed out to grab some last-minute snacks and drinks for the occasion. He was gone when a car pulled up outside their open front door, and Byleth closed the screen of her laptop most of the way to see who was coming into her home, finding that she couldn’t move fast enough to close it completely when she saw Bernie and Dorothea getting out of the car. By the time she’d taken her laptop to its home in the bedroom, those two were at the door, and she could hear Annette’s voice behind them. “Hello, Byleth dear!” Dorothea greeted, while Bernie waved. “Sorry that we couldn’t bring everyone with us, there was a bit of a mishap down the road and so the others should be here shortly.”

“Ah, others?” Byleth asked, already knowing that there wasn’t going to be enough room for just the people there at the door to come inside. “Well, we’ll cross the space bridge when we get there. Come in, get comfortable, make yourselves at home as best as you can.” The two there at the door obliged, and it was once they’d sat down where Byleth had been moments before that she saw they’d brought not just Annette, but Ingrid with them as well. “Oh wow, there’s even more than you four?”

“My fault, actually.” Holding a hand to her chest as if she was deeply sorry for what she’d done, Dorothea explained, “I might’ve heard that this was meant to be an exclusive gathering and asked Claude if I could try to bring the whole group together for a night of fun at your place. It didn’t quite work, so many of them simply weren’t interested, but I got a handful of us to commit to coming.”

“Unless they’re working,” Annette piped up, while Ingrid nodded next to her, the two of them still outside the house. “We’ve been talking about that the whole way over here, there’s a bunch of them who had to work today. Good thing some of us work places that give you random days off!”

“Yeah, Sylvain and Felix both would’ve been here if they could’ve swung it, but they’re not available today.” Looking rather out of her element without either of the aforementioned men around her, Ingrid seemed to have actually put effort into how she looked even though it was just a casual gathering. “I think that Mercedes was the same way, except we know she’s not…working.”

Byleth, knowing that was a distinct possibility, nodded in understanding. “She’s got more important things to take care of than a last-minute social gathering. We can forgive it.”

“Hopefully the others won’t be too long,” Bernie said, quietly as to not distract the rest of the conversation as they continued talking about who wasn’t going to be in attendance due to scheduling conflicts. “I feel bad having left them behind but we didn’t have room in our car for them.”

Patting Bernie’s knee with comfort in her touch, Dorothea assured her, “They’ll be fine. I already arranged for someone to pick them up and bring them, and hopefully the car will be able to be fixed sooner rather than later. That’s quite the drive for them to have to come get it, after all.”

“I’m afraid I still don’t know who you’re talking about,” Byleth admitted, before it dawned on her that some familiar faces hadn’t been mentioned in the conversation so far. “Oh geez, is it Raphael and Ignatz and Leonie? I really don’t think we have the space for those three.”

“Leonie’s working tonight, and I hadn’t heard anything about the other two, so it’s not them,” Annette said, clasping her hands together and bouncing a single time. “But maybe when Claude gets here we can see if he’ll ask them to come. It’s always fun when Raphael’s at a party, he’s so entertaining!”

“How’d you know Claude wasn’t here?” Byleth asked, before realizing how dumb the question was when the house was as small as it was and no car had been out front before the four ladies had shown up. She apologized for her stupid question but none of the others laughed at her, getting it that sometimes people didn’t think things through all the way before they said them. They all drifted back into talking about what the people who weren’t going to be there were doing instead, except it turned into a discussion about what the end outcome of why Hilda and Caspar were busy would be—between them all, they knew that they were off visiting Holst together, and if her brother was involved it had to be serious business of some sort.

The sound of their car honking was what pulled Byleth out of the gossip and back into reality, and she looked to see Claude parked in his usual spot, getting out of the driver’s side door while holding a bag of snacks. “I picked some things up, just like I said I would,” he called into the house, which all five of the ladies were inside at that point. “But I might’ve picked up some things you weren’t expecting.”

“Er, that would be us, wouldn’t it?” she heard another voice say, and coming around to where she could see were Ashe, Petra, and Marianne, him taking the lead in announcing their arrival. “Sorry about the delay, but thank you very much Dorothea for getting Claude to come help us out.”

“He did say he was down that way anyway, it was more letting him know where you needed him,” she replied with a smile, as the newcomers all came to the door. “Oh, do you want us to come outside so all of you can come in? I’m not really sure all nine of us can be in here at once, you know.”

Having been thinking the same thing, Byleth was a split-second away from suggesting that they all swap before Claude shook his head. “No need. Someone take this stuff from me and set it in the kitchen, we’ve got all the chairs in the back of the car and we’ll all just hang out outside like I originally suggested. You all brought warm clothes for when it gets chillier after dark, didn’t you?”

“I knew I was forgetting something,” Ingrid grumbled, being the only one of the ladies inside not already wearing pants or a long skirt and a jacket of some sort (although only Bernie was actually wearing her jacket as intended). She looked to Byleth, sized her up, and asked, “Mind if I borrow something of yours if it gets cold? Don’t want to freeze out there if it gets too cold, after all.”

It was no problem at all, which Byleth made clear by going into the bedroom and grabbing one of her sweaters out from her neatly-organized clothing, handing it off to Ingrid in time with Claude passing his bags of food inside the house. Five minutes later, everyone except Byleth and Bernie were outside, with Marianne sitting in the doorway with her head in her hands and everyone else taking seats in a circle that had been set up. “I’m going to stay in here and help you, if you don’t mind,” Bernie said, keeping barely a hair’s width between them as they were unbagging things in the kitchen. “I’m not really…feeling super social right now, I’m sure you know the feeling.”

“I lived that feeling for five years,” Byleth reminded her, “until a little bird named Bernadetta came and taught me that I needed to feel other things. But I do get it, and I could always use the help in here.”

“Me helping you come back to everyone was probably the best thing I’ve ever done.” With a soft laugh, Bernie looked over at the open door and everyone in their circle outside of it. “These are such good people, and I wouldn’t be who I am without them. You wouldn’t be who you are without them either, I don’t think.”

Ripping open a bag of chips to go with some salsa that Claude had picked out, Byleth gave a small chuckle. “Oh definitely, if I didn’t know these people I wouldn’t be anything close to how I am right now. Could you imagine me trying to make friends somewhere that wasn’t that club?”

“Same here, really. It seems daunting, like it wasn’t ever going to happen.”

“And yet, here we are, having a small party with a bunch of people we met because of a snooty rich kid social club that…” Byleth hesitated on the last part, but after handing the now-open bag to Bernie for her to take it to Marianne to pass around outside, she felt comfortable enough in her audience to finish the statement. “A snooty rich kid social club that changed all our lives, whether for better or for worse.”

“Don’t mind me listening in,” Marianne said, having heard what Byleth had been saying because it wasn’t like the house was big enough to keep things private, “but when you and Claude inevitably get married, that needs to be part of your vows.”

That was what caused the circle to erupt into chaos, everyone outside only knowing what Marianne said in the conversation, not what had prompted it. Claude seemed stunned that he’d heard such a thing; Dorothea and Annette were looking at each other, squealing at the idea of their friends getting married; Ingrid seemed confused about where it had come from, glancing at Petra who seemed just as lost; Ashe looked as if he was about to bring up some literary reference about something similar; Marianne shrank into her shoulders at the uproar that her statement had made; and inside the house, Bernie and Byleth were both trying their best not to laugh at how out of hand things had gotten. This was the sort of thing they’d have experienced back at the Three Houses Club, all of the missed connections and group reactions, and for one night, it was nice to slip back into a less-structured version of those good old days.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I cannot believe this is the penultimate chapter of this fic! we've come so far since the beginning c':


	10. Chapter 10

Time marched on, whether they wanted it to or not, and few and far between were the days where they could gather with their friends and just relax. For the entire rest of the semester from that one glorious day off until the day all final grades were due, Byleth was devoted wholly to getting her work done, knowing that her long-postponed graduation relied on her completing what the classes expected of her. Behind her back, because he couldn’t spend but the necessary moments each day with her, Claude was planning something to celebrate her accomplishments and getting everyone he could in on the festivities.

Going to the graduation ceremony itself wasn’t something Byleth had wanted to do; she’d never once stepped foot on the college campus she was attending, and they offered to pay for her travel expenses to get her there so that they could announce her as a graduate with three degrees at once. That was something she made very clear that she was not interested in, and she had even taped a piece of paper to the back of her laptop that said that she was not going to be going to her graduation so don’t suggest it to her, even as a joke. Seeing that, and knowing that three degrees _was_ something to be proud of, only motivated Claude to make his plans even more elaborate and yet still fitting for Byleth herself.

All of the planning had to be done in secret, because if she found out that anything was happening at all beyond her getting her degrees sent to her in the mail, she would refuse to take part in any of it. That meant getting a bit creative, and oftentimes deceptive, with his time, which wasn’t any sort of problem for Claude at all, being a master at deception and coming up with lies off the cuff. He’d tell her he was going to work early, or staying late, and because she never saw the money he got from the job she was none the wiser that he was doing other things with that extra work time, whether it was meeting with friends or just sitting in the car plotting what he was going to do.

The faux graduation took place the weekend after the real one had, which they’d only acknowledged when Byleth pulled up a video stream of it and watched all of the opening speeches and introductions, her not even waiting to see what they’d do about her not being in attendance before she’d shut it off. “I never actually went to the school, I don’t feel like I deserve to be a part of that,” she explained, which made Claude feel a bit more confident that his plan wouldn’t be completely rejected when she found out about it. “I’ll ask some friends to come by for, like, dinner when I get the papers in a couple months. Nothing crazy.”

“Yeah, that sounds like your sort of celebration,” he replied, caking on the deception with his overdramatic nodding. “I’ll start thinking about what we’re going to do for it now, so that when it comes around you don’t have to do a thing.”

“Oh definitely, thank you. With all of those extra hours you’ve been getting lately, affording a small dinner with friends shouldn’t be too difficult at all.” Completely unaware that the money she was referring to did not exist, Byleth saw how overly excited Claude was and she chalked it up to him looking forward to the celebration as well.

So when he brought up needing to go over to Hilda’s the following weekend a couple days later, she had no idea that it was possibly connected to what they’d previously been talking about. She even asked to make sure that it wasn’t a party that they would be going to—which he said it wasn’t, an honest statement as the event wasn’t exactly a party—and then she moved on to relishing in her free time as they waited for the fated day to come. By the time they were driving over to Hilda’s place, Claude could barely contain his excitement to see Byleth’s reaction to what was in store, while she was completely unaware that she’d been deceived in the first place.

Her first real clue that not everything was as it seemed came when they parked down the street from the house, rather than finding space in the giant driveway outside of it. “This is just where she told me to park,” he explained, gesturing to some of the other vehicles they recognized as belonging to other friends. “Looks like she invited a few more people over than I’d been told, but nothing too crazy from the looks of it.”

“This better not be a party after all,” Byleth grumbled, looking at herself in her rather plain clothing, her blouse and pants both things she’d fished out of her belongings to try and look nice for the occasion. “I was aiming for ‘hanging out with a couple people’, not ‘dressing like I’m partying’ today.”

“Nah, you should be good exactly as you are.” Reminding her that he too was rather casually dressed, Claude managed to get Byleth’s mind off the topic of parties just long enough to get them up the road and in view of the grand mansion, where the driveway had been repurposed with a stage and a bunch of chairs, just about all of which were already filled. As they were able to see it clearer and clearer, he could feel her hand tightening around his, and he knew that the deception was finally coming to an end.

“There she is!” Hilda’s voice rang out through speakers set up around the makeshift graduation ceremony. “The woman of the hour! Quick, start up the music!”

Her eyes narrowing, Byleth looked at Claude as he slyly smiled back at her, the corners of his mouth creeping upward in time with the music. “This isn’t just something small, is it?” she asked, sounding completely unamused, as Caspar and Raphael started running towards them, catching Byleth by the arms as Claude barely jumped out of the way. She was stunned with the strong men grabbing her, dragging her up to the stage where Hilda was waiting for her, and Claude was left walking to the only seat in the front row that was still open. After being unceremoniously tossed onto the stage, Byleth tried her best to get down but she had the two men on the ground watching her every move and Hilda excitedly trying to talk to her about what was about to happen there in her front yard.

Really, there wasn’t much to the events that were going to transpire there on the stage, Byleth found out after hearing Hilda out for a couple minutes. “Yeah, we don’t really have anything to give you, except some cool fake diplomas Ignatz made for the occasion,” she said with a laugh, motioning towards three distinct papers sitting on the podium behind her. “It’ll be, like, five minutes tops until we finish this, and then the real fun begins.”

“A party, huh?” Byleth asked, sounding completely unamused because she’d been assured that wasn’t why she was there.

“What else would it be? But don’t worry, everyone’s just here to have a casually fun time, not something super crazy or fancy.” Grabbing the microphone from where she’d set it down, Hilda told everyone to make sure they were in their seats so that they could get things started, and the two bodyguards behind the stage went around to retake their seats at the corners of the seating area. “Okay, that’s just about everything in order for us to get going,” she told them all, looking at Byleth before looking at the podium. “Does our presenter want to come up so that our recipient can get her degrees?”

Almost expecting Claude to be the one to play that role, Byleth was completely floored when she saw that it was Marianne coming up to the stage, her head hanging down as she approached Hilda and took the microphone, the two of them effectively switching places on the stage. “I was the lucky one who got to claim this role,” she explained, speaking into the microphone but not looking anywhere but at her feet. “It really meant a lot to me to be one of the ones in the running for it, and I did intend on doing this with grace, but I had quite the idea come to me when I was thinking over what, exactly, I’d say, and after talking it over with some of my dear friends we thought of someone better to fill the role in my place.”

That was when Marianne lifted her head and looked out at the crowd for a second, seeing them giving her a bunch of supportive hand motions, before she turned to Byleth. “I’d rather not put you on the spot for a moment longer than we already have, so…without further interruption, will the real presenter come to the stage?”

“It’s about time that I get to make my appearance,” Byleth heard Alois say, and she turned around to see him standing at the other side of the stage, arms wide open as if beckoning her for a hug, but he closed them when Marianne came over and gave him the microphone. “I have heard quite a few stories about how much you’ve grown since we last parted. Shall we get things started then?”

She didn’t know how to react except with the most nervous of smiles she could muster, looking forced on her lips, and Alois laughed it off as he came closer, while Marianne descended from the stage to take her seat, Hilda giving her a thumbs-up as she did. The moment Alois saw that everyone was where they needed to be, he crossed over in front of Byleth and stood at the podium, pointing for her to stand directly in the middle of the stage in front of everyone’s watching eyes. “Today we are here to celebrate the accomplishments of a dedicated and intelligent young woman, who worked through both good times and bad to get to where she currently stands.”

“Yeah, you go Byleth!” someone in the crowd, who she was certain was Sylvain but she couldn’t see where he was sitting to determine if she was right, yelled out, and it was followed with a few moments of applause that Alois allowed to happen before he kept on speaking to them all.

“We all know the story of Byleth’s struggles over the past handful of years, but for her to rise from the hardships of losing her father, her sense of direction, and to come back to the education he’d wanted to see her attain, that is something that none of us can say we were capable of in our current lives. Let her dedication to getting her education be a reminder that we are all capable of so much more than we let on, and let her dedication to blossoming into a new standard of living while finishing learning teach us that we can all do what we need to, even if the timing is off.” He paused, looking down at the papers Ignatz had made for the occasion, and when his eyes came back up there were tears forming in the corners. “Jeralt would be beyond proud of you if he saw that you stuck through to see your goals become completed,” he said, and it was then that she found herself tearing up as well.

This really _had_ all been done because she knew her father wanted her to succeed in life. He’d been the one who’d worked hard to allow her to go to school, to take on each of the degrees at once rather than one after the other. He’d been the one who’d initially encouraged her to go to college, to take the online classes, to do her best and see what she was truly capable of, and he wasn’t there to celebrate it with her. Noticing that she was starting to get emotional, Alois gestured out to the crowd and waved for them to start cheering, and much like the single cheer before, soon everyone was calling out her name in praise.

It didn’t help her stop being sad about Jeralt not being there, but it did remind her that she may not have had her father anymore, but she had something much more important: her family of friends who would always support her. “Now, on to what we all gathered here for,” Alois said after quieting everyone down. “Our dearest Byleth Eisner comes here today to receive three college degrees that she earned simultaneously, a feat most students would shudder to consider. Today she walks away a graduate with her degree in education, her degree in human sciences, and her degree in psychology, a triad that shall open doors to her that many would take much, much longer to find unlocked in their paths.”

Claude obviously wanted to be the first to his feet, but he was beat by Hilda, who’d started to get up before Alois had finished speaking, but within five seconds everyone there was standing and applauding Byleth, while she stared blankly out at all of them, not knowing what she needed to do to fulfil her role there on the stage. Eventually it was decided that she’d get the papers one at a time and people could take as many pictures of her with them as they wanted, then she would hold all three and the pictures would go on again. A couple people were allowed to be up there with her for their own pictures, first Alois and then Claude, followed by Hilda, Marianne, and Bernie, and after Bernie had gotten back down everyone else was told to find her later to take more if they so chose.

“That concludes the ceremony part of today’s festivities,” Alois told them once everyone was back to their seats for the most part. “I am honored to have been your speaker, and I hope to see you all for some reconnecting before I head back up to the academy.”

The moment Byleth came down off the stage, she was flanked with multiple people all wanting to congratulate her on her achievements. Claude had gotten to her first and had wrapped an arm around her protectively, to keep her comfortable with the crowd growing around her. Most of the people there just wanted to tell her good job and then move on, because Hilda had gotten back on the microphone and announced that she had a large selection of food and drinks inside the house, but there were two that stuck around. “Gotta say, I’m jealous of you, Claude,” Sylvain said with a chuckle. “You really managed to bag the smartest one out of everyone, huh?”

“Come on now, Byleth’s good for more than her brains,” he replied, before realizing how that came off and noticing that Mercedes was also still standing there. “I-I mean, she’s good for living with, and she’s gorgeous too.”

“You’re allowed to talk about sleeping together in front of me,” Mercedes said, knowing that she was the reason he’d stumbled over his words. “You know that I already know you do it.”

Without waiting for whatever Claude was going to say, Byleth interrupted with, “And you shamed us for it then.”

Everyone paused for a moment, then Sylvain started to snort in laughter, doubling over and having to collect himself with his arms hitting his legs as he laughed. “Mercedes, shaming you guys for sleeping together? Are you serious?” he choked out, his hands having to hit his legs faster. “That’s like me shaming you for it!”

“But she brought up the goddess and sleeping together being immoral.” Byleth looked at how over-the-top Sylvain’s reaction was, then tilted her head towards Claude, who had pursed his lips and was looking at her with a shrug of one shoulder. “I don’t get it, why would she do that if she wasn’t shaming us?”

“I was making a joke, Byleth, I had no idea how seriously you took that.” Kindness in her eyes as she crinkled them at the couple, Mercedes added, “I really wouldn’t judge you for such behavior, and what the goddess says is irrelevant, especially when there is such strong love there.”

“Especially when there’s— _Mercie_?” Claude nearly did a double-take at what he’d heard. “Why are you talking like you’ve been sleeping with someone?” The way she didn’t move even slightly when that accusation had been lobbed at her made him even more surprised, while Byleth just stood there, barely comprehending how badly she’d misread the whole situation. “Come on, you’ve got to be kidding, aren’t you?”

A single finger rose to touch Mercedes’ cheek, which made her look more cherubic and innocent than the conversation would lead one to believe she was. “I’m not going to divulge my private matters,” she calmly said, over the ruckus that was Sylvain still laughing next to her. “But I will say that while the goddess may look down on premarital behaviors, I can’t actually say that I care at all.”

Her turning and heading towards the house, leaving the three standing there in various states of taking the information, left more questions unanswered than just the one she’d originally been asked. “I can’t believe that just happened,” Sylvain finally managed to say in a normal-level voice after several moments of hacking and wheezing from how hard he’d been laughing. “Never thought I’d hear the day where Mercie says that sort of thing and we all have to take it.”

“I really thought she was judging us for it,” Byleth mumbled, leaning her face onto Claude’s shoulder. “I had no idea she really didn’t care.”

“You could’ve asked, the rest of us knew pretty well.” Standing up to full height, his face almost as bright as his hair, Sylvain brushed some of his bangs from his forehead to try and further collect himself. “It wasn’t a secret that she didn’t care about who’s doing what, she’d always been very open about that with all of the Blue Lions, because as long as it was _safe_ she didn’t see a problem with it. The other part, though…wow, wasn’t expecting that.”

“So she’s really keeping a secret there, interesting.” Claude moved his arm from around Byleth to merely behind her, running his fingers through her hair as she was still mumbling about how confused she was about the turn of events that had just transpired. He cast a glance at the other person still there with them. “Gonna go out on a limb and assume it wasn’t any sort of reference to you, right, Sylvain?”

“Can’t say that it was,” he replied, giving a single snort of amusement at it. “But who knows, really, it could be just about anyone we know if we’re being honest. Not like they’ll spill the news without Mercie saying it’s okay, though.”

While there was plenty they could keep discussing on the matter, Byleth was quickly realizing that if they were outside, and she was the reason for the festivities in the first place, they were potentially going to get swarmed when they went inside. “I think we can talk about this later, can’t we?” she asked, pointing towards the house with her foot, a motion neither man saw. “Let’s get to where everyone else is, before they start looking for us. Or, more specifically, for me.”

“Every day’s a new surprise with you, Byleth,” Claude admitted once they started on their way to the front door. “Never thought I’d hear you be the one to suggest for us to go into a large, rowdy social event, but here we are. You’ve really grown from how you were when we first met back up here, haven’t you?” She didn’t give him a response because she knew he knew what her answer would be, but Sylvain was there to tell him he was absolutely right, that the Byleth they were there with now was nowhere near the same person who’d shown up to that house party on late notice.

By the time they got inside, everyone had taken their usual places in the rooms, lots of loud talking and drinking happening all around them. Sylvain, after giving Byleth another congrats, ducked down the hallway to go to the back room where he usually hung out in the parties, and in his absence she looked at Claude and tugged on his arm. “Where should we go for ourselves?” she asked, waiting for him to say something before immediately deciding that his inevitable answer of joining everyone in the living room wasn’t the right choice. “Let’s go into the kitchen, actually, so we can get some drinks for ourselves before the non-alcoholic ones are all taken.”

“No promises that I’ll want those, but sure.” Allowing her to lead the way, they were quickly met with quite the crowd in the kitchen, all drinking and talking before their arrival but going silent in their presence. He waved at them all with his free hand, while Byleth froze in place and looked at everyone still in there.

“It’s about time you show your faces inside!” Alois loudly greeted, taking a drink from the bottle in his hand before setting it on the countertop, now empty. “We’ve been discussing how strange it was that no one had seen you enter, but here you are.”

Shrinking into her shoulders a bit, Byleth wasn’t sure how to answer. “We were just outside talking to people, nothing big,” she finally said, watching Claude let go of her to grab himself a drink similar to what Alois had just finished off. “I wasn’t aware that people would be looking forward to us coming inside.”

At once, several voices started speaking at once, all of them assuring her that people really did want her to come in so that they could talk to her, and rather than handle the suddenness of the attention well Byleth closed in on herself, bringing her hands up to her ears to drown out the sound. “Leave her alone, will you?” Claude snapped, realizing that he’d put her in a situation that she wasn’t fully prepared for. “I get that we’ve made a big deal out of things for her here today, but she’s never liked the attention and this isn’t going to make her suddenly want to talk to everyone about what she’s done.”

“Ah, yes, sorry about that. Deepest apologies.” It wasn’t just Alois that gave an apology to Byleth, but his was by far the loudest and most memorable, and when he left the kitchen nearly everyone else did as well, minus Claude and Byleth themselves. That allowed for Claude to make sure she was okay, that she was going to be able to survive their time there at the party, and to get her some water to sip on while she was still overwhelmed.

But just because some people knew what had happened in there didn’t mean everyone did, and so when Hilda and Caspar came barreling into the kitchen they immediately sent Byleth back into wanting nothing to do with anyone. “No, we’re not here to barrage you with questions like everyone else definitely has been doing,” Hilda explained, although she backed off after Claude snapped at her like he had the others. “Right, got it, I can wait until she’s calmed down a bit. This news might set her off in a different way.”

Raising his eyebrows until Hilda raised hers in retaliation, Claude seemed to realize he knew what was about to be brought up and he relaxed. “Go ahead and tell her it now, it’s better to get it out of the way at once then draw it out.”

“Oh, well, if you insist.” Hilda’s reply came with her almost having to hold Caspar back, as he was trying to get closer to Byleth much like a small puppy would. “He’s been eager to tell her this since he found out, and now it’s finally—”

“Hey Byleth! Do you remember when me and Hilda went to go visit Holst a while back?” Completely cutting his girlfriend off before she was ready for it, Caspar pushed Hilda’s arm out of his way and grabbed Byleth by the shoulders so that she had no choice but to look at him, dazed at his energy. “C’mon, yes or no, do you remember?”

“I-I do remember, yeah.”

He beamed at the response he was given. “Awesome! Can you guess what happened then?”

Her mouth opening, Byleth let a lot of words roll around on her tongue but she was unable to confidently say any of them at all. Instead, she looked at Claude for help, which he was more than happy to provide. “Given how overly excited you are, I’ll wager a guess that you talked to him about possibly marrying his sister, huh?”

“Yeah! _But_ that’s not really what I’m excited to get to tell you guys!” Cue Hilda smacking her forehead at how badly she saw Caspar butchering what she’d wanted him to tell them, but she stayed silent even as he rambled on. “Remember when we were still at the academy and you took me fishing with you that time? Do you remember that too?”

“Yes, but I don’t see what you getting married in the future has to do with us going fishing together.” That was a very vague, faded memory that Byleth could barely recall, but she did distinctly remember there being cats involved—which hit her like a truck barreling through a tunnel. “Did you decide you’d get us a cat as a gift?”

“Okay, before we get more off-track, I’m stepping in.” Hilda put her hands between Caspar and Byleth and motioned for them to separate, which happened quickly and allowed for her to take the place that Caspar had just been standing in. “One, the fact that he asked Holst for permission to marry me doesn’t matter right now because nothing’s come of it yet, so that’s irrelevant. Two, he wasn’t supposed to lead you to thinking about cats, because that’s totally irrelevant as well. Three…well, three is that we initially went to talk to Holst about financing a bit of a lovers’ getaway, which got definitely derailed when talks of proposals and weddings started, but the point is that he said he’d pay for one.”

“Congrats, I guess?” Byleth said, not sure what that had to do with her, or with anything that she’d just been told by Caspar. “I’m glad that you’re making today about you, it gets the attention off of me.”

Scrunching her entire face in frustration at how poorly her plan was unfolding, Hilda gently shook Byleth’s shoulders to let her know she was going the wrong way. “We’re not making this about us, don’t worry! This one-hundred percent involves you and Claude, and that’s why I’m telling you it now. The place that Holst found to rent for us out on the west coast of Fódlan is a two-bedroom beach house, and we knew right away that we wanted you two to come with us. Consider it our graduation present for you.”

“A beach house,” Byleth repeated, before connecting the dots that had been shoddily laid down for her. “I’m going to get to go fishing at this place, huh?”

“Exactly!” Caspar cut in, much to Hilda’s annoyance. “And not just at the house, we’re going to go all-out and rent a boat for a day to do some deep-water fishing!”

“Imagine it now, a week out on the western coast, nothing to worry about except sunrise, sunset, swimming, and…fishing, I guess.” Sighing dreamily, Hilda looked into Byleth’s eyes as she could see the gears turning in her head. “Sounds like a good time, doesn’t it?”

After giving it some thought, Byleth nodded. “It does. I’m looking forward to it, whenever it is. Which, uh, when is it?”

“Next summer!” Caspar yelled, making the others all flinch at his exuberance. “S-sorry, I’m just really looking forward to it, already counting down the days to when we’ll leave and everything. I’ve never really done something like this before.”

“Over a year to prepare for it,” Claude muttered, casting a half-glare at Hilda, who didn’t seem to notice it at all with how she was still smiling at Byleth and how she was on board with the plan. “Sounds like someone’s planning to use this trip for something else.”

“A year gives us enough time to save up money to make it fun,” Byleth said, completely missing any of what was muttered beside her, “so I’m fine with that.”

“I think you’ve missed the point of this, if you think you’re going to be paying for anything,” Hilda laughed, finally letting go of Byleth’s arms to set her free. “This is all paid for by Holst and my family’s money, there’s nothing any of us actually need to do for the travel, the house, the food…the boat. All will be taken care of.”

Her eyes widening a bit at how kind of a gesture that was, Byleth realized she’d still need money for the whole thing in one regard. “If we’re going to be at the beach, I might need some beach clothes,” she told Hilda, “so we can go shopping before we go on the trip, and that’ll require money, won’t it?”

“You’re totally right, that’s a good point! Ooh, I’m so excited to go swimsuit shopping with you for this trip, I can imagine how fun it’ll be already!” Now grabbing Byleth’s hand, Hilda tugged her towards the doorway to leave the kitchen. “Come on, now that you know what our gift to you is, there’s tons of other gifts from everyone else for you to open up! Let’s go see them before people get impatient!”

As she was being taken out of the kitchen rather against her will, Claude was left in there with Caspar, who crossed his arms over his chest and gave a small nod. “I’m sure you can guess why Hilda pushed for this to be next summer,” he said, which made Claude take in a sharp breath. “Gives you just a bit more time to figure out what you want to do, rather than making you make a decision right away.”

“Never would’ve guessed she’d be okay with postponing a trip for a whole year for my sake, but I appreciate it. Although…” He trailed off as he realized that he didn’t have an although to actually say. “Never mind, it’s a great idea to have that extra year, let’s just hope the timing’s right when it happens.”

* * *

The next year of their lives felt like it flew by, even though it was a lot of hard work that they put in every week of it. With three degrees to her name, Byleth was able to branch out and start looking for work, finding a job as an assistant instructor of an online class, which she only took because it was aimed at college-age students who were interested in pursuing psychology-related fields. With her putting in a full-time schedule with that job, it meant that Claude didn’t need to work quite as much at the store as he had been, although when his one-year mark came around they offered him a promotion due to his likable personality and his dedication to his work. It wasn’t the optimal route, to take on more hours at the job when he’d been trying to cut back on them, but it meant he could save up a lot more money for the future.

Oh, and the guaranteed vacation time meant that when they took their week-long trip out to western Fódlan, he wasn’t going to be going unpaid. Byleth, by virtue of her job being a teaching-related one, already had the week off, so he was just making it more convenient for him to get to go.

The final days before they went were spent getting everything absolutely ready to go, because once they were at the beach house they were going to be an hour away from the nearest big town, so anything they needed would have to go with them. No stranger to packing for trips, Byleth figured that she would only need the bare minimum in regards to clothing—almost exclusively things she’d bought while shopping with Hilda—but Claude talked her into bringing extra just in case things got dirtied or the weather wasn’t cooperative with her wardrobe. They playfully argued about if that was necessary or not for quite some time before she gave in and listened to him, turning her one suitcase of things into a suitcase and a duffel bag, which matched the amount he was bringing with him. She was convinced they’d overpacked, until the day they met their friends at the airport and found each of them with two large suitcases, only to find out that just one of those was Caspar’s and the other was Hilda’s third.

“I like to be prepared for anything, and having a swimsuit for each day was a necessity,” she explained with a toss of her hair, which she’d tied into a high ponytail to keep it neat on the flight. “Besides, Holst’s card is the one on the reservations, he’s the one getting charged for all the luggage fees. I just get to look pretty and take my trip however I want to.”

“That’s some entitled, big-spending thinking right there,” Claude remarked, looking at Caspar with a shake of his head. “Can’t believe you’re actually willing to marry someone who thinks money works like that.”

Rather than try to swoop in to Hilda’s defense, Caspar merely shrugged. “It’s okay, I think Holst’ll keep providing for her as long as he wants to, and since he’s been fine with paying for this trip, I think that’ll be for a long time.” It was a rather hopeful statement, and as much as Claude wanted to poke holes in it, he refrained for the time being. When they got to the check-in counter, the amount of fees they incurred for the extra bags was some insanely high number and Hilda waved it off, telling them to charge the account that had paid for the tickets, and the man at the counter scowled when he was able to do so with no issue at all, taking all of the suitcases and bags and sending them down to the waiting plane.

The flight was far from Byleth’s first, but it had been so long since she’d last flown anywhere that she could feel nerves starting to build the moment they got to the gate, her grabbing Claude’s hand and not wanting to let it go. “You’ll be fine,” he assured her, “because flying’s honestly safer than driving on roads anywhere in Fódlan. You hear about car crashes all the time, but what about plane wrecks?”

“I know,” she replied, trying to refocus her mind on positive things rather than the impending flight. “It’s just been a long time since I’ve been on a plane. Last time was before I even lived in Garreg Mach, while Father and I were traveling around all the time.”

“Come on, flying’s not that scary,” Hilda jumped in, sounding excited for the flight, although they all knew it was excitement for getting to the beach house. “Last year, when we flew home to see Holst, it was the easiest thing I’d ever done in my life. Flying back, not so much, but apparently flying towards the mountains is scarier.”

Puffing her cheeks out as she exhaled a long breath, Byleth wanted to make it very clear that she really wasn’t scared about flying at all, but she didn’t feel that she’d be listened to if she tried. “I’m going to be fine, it’s just been a long while since I did this. Let me have my nerves in peace, please.”

Seeing that she was irritated, Claude was immediately ready to let her do as she wished. However, it wasn’t just his call to be made. “I’m hoping the flight gets a little bumpy, they might give us money to go on another flight to make up for it, and that means we can go on a nicer trip after the wedding than what we’ve already planned,” Caspar said, shaking his fists in front of him as a form of showing excitement. “I’d scrap all the plans we’ve got so far if it means we got to travel somewhere for free.”

“Isn’t it less than a month until the wedding? Wouldn’t that be a bad idea?” Claude wasn’t going to think of himself as an expert on weddings by any means, but he was fairly certain that trying to reschedule the honeymoon on such short notice was not a smart idea, even if reduced-price flights were involved. “I’d rather us have a safe, uneventful flight than you two get stuck with massive cancellation fees for trying to use vouchers we get if we almost die on the ride.”

“We’re not going to die,” both Caspar and Byleth said simultaneously, his tone joking while hers was more serious. She was the one who followed up with, “And that’s not letting me have my nerves in peace, Claude.”

“Right, sorry about that.”

Hilda flopped down into one of the seats at the gate, kicking her legs up on the armrest between it and the one next to it. “We’ve still got some time to kill before the flight, want to talk about the plan for when we land? I’ve already got the confirmation for the rental car, it’s going to be a van for all our bags but we’re not using it to cruise in style, we’re using it to get to the house, damn it.” Talking about what they were going to do upon landing was something they’d done over and over in the past week, because there were a lot of moving parts that they had to keep in check. Getting the car was the important part, but so was stopping at a store on the way to the house to pick up all the food and supplies they hadn’t packed so that they’d be ready for their week of living the luxurious life.

No one really seemed interested in having that discussion right then, which visibly irritated Hilda but she didn’t say a word about it. She didn’t press the issue when Byleth sat down next to her and promptly buried her face in her arms and didn’t move until the call for boarding was made, nor did she try to get anything started even as the guys started whispering between them. In fact, despite being annoyed at how her suggestion had been ignored, she spent most of that waiting time staring at the sizeable ring on her finger, moving it to see how the light reflected off of its many gemstones.

The flight was uneventful, exactly as they’d all really hoped it would be, and after a few hours in the air they’d touched down on Fódlan’s western coast, at an airport that rarely saw travelers coming to it from within Fódlan itself. Their rental car was waiting for them, the company lending it to them eager to service such well-off travelers, and just like they’d discussed they stopped at a local grocery store on the road before driving down the winding trail to the small beach town they were spending the week in. Unlike what they’d expected, there were a few places in the town that could be of use to them; there may not have been any large stores but there were some restaurants and the boat rental place, as well as a few boutiques and a single market that advertised year-round fresh food.

Their beach house was a little way outside the small town, on a piece of shoreline that seemed to be otherwise empty of human involvement. There was the house, sitting on the rocky outcropping that made up the barrier between beach and land, and outside of it was a fishing pier that made Byleth’s eyes go wide to see. “I am going to spend _so_ much time out there,” she told Claude, nudging him to make sure he saw it as well. “I’ve got my rod and the one we got for you, and I think Caspar brought one, so that makes three of us who can fish out there.”

“I’m not sure you’ll have as much time for fishing as you’d like,” he pointed out, before reminding her of the schedule that Hilda had tried to put together for their trip. He found it laughable that she wasn’t able to do much in the way of real work, but when it came to planning excursions for a week-long vacation, she’d been all over it. “We’ll make time though, I promise.”

With fishing on the mind, Byleth was mentally checked out of any other conversation that took place that night, even as they were getting dinner made in the house’s kitchen and they were unpacking everything they’d brought to know where it was. She made a beeline for that pier the first chance she got, her rod and the bait they’d bought at the store with her, and it took Claude chasing her down and reminding her that she had to have dinner first to get her to come back inside. “Honestly, the sunset hour is going to be best for fishing, and you’re going to make me miss it,” she’d lamented as she trudged back inside, not having even been able to cast her line once. “I’m going to be upset if I don’t get to fish during prime hours even once this trip.”

“What, exactly, would you say are prime hours?” he asked, afraid for what her answer was going to be.

“Sunrise and sunset. They're called the 'golden hours'. ”

“Somehow I knew you’d say that.” Sighing, Claude placed a hand on Byleth’s shoulder and got her to look dejectedly into his eyes. “I can’t tell you you’ll be able to fish at either of those times, but you can definitely try when you get the chance. Just not tonight, you’ve got to eat right now. We’ve had a long travel day, take the time to relax, got it?”

Relaxing might not have been what she wanted to do when there was the opportunity to fish, but Byleth knew she wasn’t going to beat Claude when he wanted what was best for her. “I’ll come out in the morning, I guess,” she said, and taking that as a victory he led her back inside to the already-served meal at the table in the kitchen. By all means she could have gone back out after eating, but they’d decided to take it easy overall and call it an early night, to get a bright start the next morning.

When a bright start had been suggested, it was under the assumption that they’d actually go to sleep when they went to bed, but both of the couples had different ideas as to what the early night meant for them. Byleth spent her time just lying in the unfamiliar bed, staring up at the crossbeams of the roof with the cool breeze of the open window stirring the air around her. She would occasionally look over at Claude and see him doing the same, unable to fall asleep in the stillness of their seaside retreat, especially not with the occasional sounds coming from the room next to theirs, but once the other two had stopped whatever they’d been doing it was easier to drift off.

Sunrise fishing was off the table in the morning, as the sun was quite hot in the window when Byleth finally woke up to an empty bed, Claude having gotten up before her and slipped out of the bedroom to go meet with their friends. Or, at least, that felt like the safe assumption to make, but she found their bedroom door still closed when she got up and he was sitting out on the wraparound porch the house had, his collared shirt unbuttoned and hanging loose off his shoulders as he dipped his toes down towards the sandy beach. “You’re awake late,” he teased, as she sat down next to him. “Thought you were all about the early morning fishing.”

“I guess I forgot to set an alarm to wake myself up,” she replied, not fazed by the joking in the slightest. “I’ll try again tomorrow. I’d love to see the sunrise over the shore as I’m out on the pier, catching the early fish.”

“Sounds like you’ve fished at sunrise before.” He looked at her and waited to see if she was going to break into a story about how she’d done that with Jeralt as a kid, but she remained silent, her eyes focused out on the rolling waves of the water. Once he knew she wasn’t giving him a response, he turned to see the water as well. “I’d think it’d be neater to do if we were on a shore that faced the sunrise, wouldn’t you think?”

She gave a small shrug. “It doesn’t matter, sunrise is still sunrise. I’m more interested in fishing at sunset, though. I can live without making it out here in the morning, but I _am_ going to fish one evening, that’s final.”

“If you’re fine with one over the other, I’m sure it’ll happen. Probably not both, though.” For a second time he looked at her, at the way her eyes were watching the water and moving up and down with each approaching wave. “You really love the idea of getting to fish out here, don’t you?”

“It’s what I’ve looked forward to since the moment I found out we’d be coming here, of course I love the idea of fishing.” She couldn’t pull her eyes from watching the water, even when Claude moved closer to her side and let his head rest on hers, his arm wrapping around her to hold her as they sat on the porch together. An interruption came in the form of Caspar running outside to find them, telling them that they’d overslept and that plans for the day were going to be shifted to a day of chilling on the beach until they went into town for dinner, an announcement that brought a sigh into Byleth’s chest. She knew she wasn’t going to be getting her sunset fishing that night if they’d be in town, but she wasn’t going to make a big deal out of it.

There’d be more times to try for the sunset hour fishing again; they were going to be there for a week, after all.

But time and time again, something stopped Byleth from being able to get out on the pier at sunset. Most of the time it was them being in town when the sky began to change from bright blue to its more subdued colors, but one night it was that she was knee-deep in the water a bit down the shore when the light started to fade, and she couldn’t return to the house in time without her absence being noticed right away. The very next night she was inside a shop in the town for the whole evening’s golden hour, and their ride home was spent with her grumbling in the backseat of the van, annoyed that she now had one last shot to get out fishing during her preferred time before the trip would be over.

“Tomorrow we’re going out on the boat,” Hilda reminded her before bed that night, “so maybe you’ll want to do your fishing before we go? You can try to wake up early, can’t you?” They all knew that Byleth hadn’t woken up early once that trip, so it was a question with an unwanted answer, but it was still the most valid suggestion anyone could make.

“I’ll try,” she replied, gritting her teeth knowing that morning was not going to be kind to her if she was up before dawn. That led to her setting an alarm and carefully checking to make sure that her phone was fully charged before settling into bed, doing everything she could to fill her promise to herself.

Little did she know that Claude, waiting until she’d fallen asleep to move, intended on turning her alarm off so that she couldn’t fish after all. He’d done it with a heavy heart, apologizing to Byleth under his breath as she slept, completely unaware of her boyfriend’s deception, and when she woke up in the morning way later than intended she had no idea he’d done anything at all. The faces around the breakfast table that morning all seemed sorry enough that she’d missed her morning chance to fish, but she blamed no one but herself for it. “Can we try to be back before sunset tonight, then?” she said, nearly begging everyone else in her desperation to get her dream fishing trip. “I know, the boat’s expensive to rent, but it would mean the world to me.”

After giving conferring glances to the two men, Hilda took a sip from her water bottle she had in front of her and nodded. “We can definitely try, but there’s really no promises since we aren’t the ones driving the boat.”

“Trying’s better than nothing.” Relief in her voice, Byleth looked at Claude with her eyes showing happiness at the potential fix for her mistake, but he couldn’t return the joyful expression. For a split second, she considered asking him if something was wrong, but she assumed it was just him feeling bad she’d overslept and passed it off as no big deal. “If I can even get ten minutes out there under the darkening sky, that’s all I really need.”

Their time out on the boat was spent fishing, naturally, with Claude, Caspar, and Byleth all casting lines off the side of the small watercraft, while Hilda lay on the seats with her bikini in full display, soaking in as much sun as she could. Every so often she’d be the one to remind everyone they needed to wear sunscreen, which Claude would always joke in return that his darker skin would only tan more, but every time Byleth would still put as much on him as she did herself and her fairer complexion, while the other two were making protecting their skin an almost seductive game. But they were all keeping themselves from being burned, even as they all slowly started losing more and more layers of their clothing.

Out there on the boat was the first time Claude could actually recall seeing Byleth in nothing but her swimsuit for the whole trip, as she’d made it a point to keep her shirt on every time she may have stripped away her pants. She was radiant, the sun glistening on the sweat and sunscreen that covered her body, her pale blue swimsuit almost invisible when looking at her against the water’s surface. He almost caught his hook in her hair one time because he was staring at her, jaw slightly hanging at the sight of her focus on her own line, the way she had noticeable muscles when she would hunch over the side of the boat to retrieve her hook before she’d reeled it in fully. If he hadn’t been completely enamored with her before that day, then he certainly was then, and the others definitely noticed how deer-in-headlights he’d get every time she’d try talking to him for the rest of their time on the boat.

They didn’t catch anything worth keeping out there, some small fish that wouldn’t provide enough meat to make cleaning them useful, and as they were riding back to shore small talk picked up between them. “Looks like we’ll be getting back early enough,” Caspar said, his eyes scanning the sky for where the sun was still in regards to the horizon. “Guess that means Byleth can get her pier fishing done if she really wants to, but I don’t know why she would. We’ve been out here most of the day, isn’t it gonna be boring?”

“The lighting is what’s going to make it worth it,” she replied, her answer predictable but not the one that Caspar seemed to want to hear. “I made it a point to get out there during the golden hour, and I’m doing it, nothing’s stopping me.”

“Oh, I’m sure something would stop you,” Hilda told her, giving Claude the quickest of glances as she spoke. “Maybe we can just all hang out on the shore and watch the sunset together? We haven’t gotten to do that, and I’m sure it’ll be lovely to watch.”

Still Byleth remained insistent on what she was going to, and no one giving other suggestions was able to change her mind. At a couple of points Claude opened his mouth to say something but dashed the idea, choosing to stay silent and listen to his friends try to convince Byleth that she didn’t need to fish one more time. He seemed to be focused on her, how she was growing more and more impatient with the prying, her hands curling around her rod for dear life as if she thought someone was going to pry it from her hands. “She’s going to fish, there’s no stopping her,” he finally pointed out, repeating what she’d previously said much to her amusement. “The rest of us can watch the sunset on the beach, though, that’ll be fine.”

It wasn’t fine, and Claude knew it, but when sunset was drawing closer and they were out on the shore without Byleth, because she’d wanted to stay in the house and relax before her big fishing time was upon her, he felt like he was making a mistake in not stopping her. “You knew it was a losing battle, and so you didn’t try.” Hilda was standing in the water, up to her mid-thigh, the cool breeze blowing her loose hair out in every direction around her, as she was watching the sun descending on the horizon. “It’s not like we’re going to be upset you couldn’t get her to change her mind, we knew it from the start that she was stubborn.”

“Yeah, and she couldn’t get the hint that we wanted her here with us, so that’s her fault.” Closer to the water’s edge, Caspar was on his knees digging in the wet sand, trying to pile it into a makeshift castle with no tools to speak of. “We all did our part, she was just too unmovable for it to matter in the end. Kinda…like the sand, actually.”

Snorting, Claude leaned back where he was sitting, feeling something sharp underneath one of his legs but paying it no mind. “It’s fine, really. She doesn’t want to be out on the beach for sunset because she wants to be doing what makes her happiest in life, which she’s going to get to do because you made sure we’d get back in time for it. I can’t be angry that she’s going to be happy.”

Turning to look back at him, Hilda smiled for a second, before her face turned to an expression of surprise. “She’s heading this way, Claude!” she yelled, before turning back towards the water, while Caspar began working extra hard on the castle.

“Was Hilda watching for me for you?” Byleth asked when she got close enough to speak at a normal volume, crouching down in her long shirt and lack of pants, and Claude shrugged. “I mean, I heard her yelling that I was coming this way, so she had to have been.”

“If she was, I didn’t ask her to do it, she did that all on her own.” He looked over at Byleth and her unamused face, and he knew that she wasn’t sure if he was lying or telling the truth right then. “Really, Byleth, why would I ask her to tell me when you’re coming? It’s not like I don’t enjoy when you’re around, I’d be fine with you surprising me.”

“You know, something tells me you’re telling the truth on that. She really seems like she’s enjoying the water, she must’ve turned around for some other reason and seen me coming when she did.” In the late-day’s light, Byleth crouching there looked nearly as radiant as she had out on the boat, even with wearing a shirt that covered most of her body, and Claude was finding himself transfixed by her again. “Anyway, I came out here to see if you wanted to fish with me. It’s just about time for me to head out to the pier, should I bring your rod?”

Tapping his teeth together as he thought about how to respond, Claude decided to throw caution to the wind and go for it, even if he wasn’t sure how well his answer would be appreciated in the future. “I’ve been sitting here trying to do the ‘watch the sunset on the beach’ that the others suggested but I think I could meet you out there at some point.” He chuckled as her face genuinely lit up, eyes shifting to make sure that he wasn’t lying to her with his body language. “Come on, Byleth, you know that I want to do whatever I can to make sure you’re having a good time, and if that means some more fishing then so be it.”

“I knew falling for you was a good idea,” she replied, leaning in with her lips slightly puckered for him to kiss her, and he did for just a few seconds before she pulled back. “I’m going to put on some pants before I go out there, in case the wind gets colder as the sun’s setting, but…I think I have the time. See you out there, Claude!”

She stood up and walked back towards the beach house, leaving Claude entranced in watching her walk away, the back of the shirt skimming the top of her swimsuit bottoms as she carefully walked on the uneven sand. “You’re still letting her go?” Caspar asked, almost loud enough for Byleth to hear what he’d said; she did turn around to look back at Claude, thinking he’d been the one to speak, but she merely gave a small wave at him before she was continuing on. “Dude, that was your second chance and you just blew it again!”

“We did all we could to help you, with the house and the week on the beach, but you’ve done nothing with it,” Hilda added, her arms reaching up to the sides of her head. “I really thought you’d be smoother than that, Claude. Kind of a disappointment, honestly.”

Once Byleth was back in the house, Claude chuckled to himself and looked at his friends, one of which was staring at him and the other staring off into the coming sunset. “I thought about it, and forcing her to stay on the beach would’ve just been a dick move. Huge jerk thing to do. She wants to fish, she’s going to get to fish. And whether she’s grabbing her prize off of the end of a fishing line or out of my hands, she’s going to get something big out on that pier during the golden hour.”

“No, she’s going to be so focused on fishing in the light that nothing’s going to distract her, especially if you’re out there fishing with her.” Giving up on his sand castle, Caspar patted down the wet sand and stood up, shaking his head at Claude before walking out into the water to join his fiancée where she still was watching the skies. “I can’t believe that between the two of us, I’m the one who managed to pull off a proposal successfully.”

“Yeah, just you wait and see, she’ll be out there in the golden light receiving something golden from someone golden,” Claude muttered under his breath, standing up as well and retrieving the small box he’d tucked into the sand underneath one of his legs, on the off-chance that Byleth would’ve wanted to stay for sunset after all. His idea to ask for her hand somewhere that made her happy had one last chance to work for him, and it only felt fitting that it’d get its opportunity during her one chance at fishing through the sunset.

Looking back, expecting to see him still sitting there, Hilda was surprised to see that Claude was on his way over to the pier, just as Byleth was heading there herself. “Where are you going, aren’t you planning to watch the sunset with us?” she hollered to ask, which he stopped to stare at her when she did. “Or are you just upset that we knew you couldn’t make it happen this trip?”

Brandishing the box close to his bare chest, right over his heart, Claude motioned towards the pier with his head, knowing that he was about to change what their current normal was with one little question and sweeping gesture. “I’ll be spending the sunset with Byleth, actually. You’re more than welcome to come watch, something tells me it’s going to be more interesting than your average sunset.” He got no response, and so he continued on his way, the first golden hues beginning to shimmer over the waves as the sun made its descent below the horizon, as the sight of the love of his life casting her line into the water off the pier filled his vision.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it took many, many months longer than anticipated, and a lot of keeping this exact ending in mind, but we're here! finished! yay!!


End file.
